In late 1984, Harry Belafonte foresaw the power of the American pop music scene. When he took note of a famine in Africa, with men, women, and children dying by the thousands, he took steps beyond watching the devastation on the nightly news. He pondered how he and his fellow musicians might help. Perhaps a charity concert?
He picked up the phone and called friends. “We have white folks saving black folks,” he said. “We don’t have black folks saving black folks.” Quincy Jones got involved. Lionel Richie got involved. Michael Jackson. Stevie Wonder.
In the new, fabulous documentary, The Greatest Night in Pop, now streaming on Netflix, viewers witness the details of how approximately 50 of the supreme names in popular music came together on the night of January 28, 1985, to arrange and record a new song—an anthem. It was a charity event to save hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of lives in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia.
The song was “We Are the World.”
After the Twelfth American Music Awards took place that evening, limos began to drop off celebs at the A&M Studios in Los Angeles. It was an awesome gathering of pop music stars.
Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rogers, Waylon Jennings, Steve Perry, Cyndi Lauper, Al Jarreau, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Ray Charles. They were there. Music manager/producer Ken Kragen coordinated, along with Richie. The charity was dubbed USA for Africa.
Bob Geldof of Band Aid kicked off the night with a reminder of the power of their efforts. Then the hard work began and continued through the night. It really was remarkable that such a last-minute, high-pressured session turned out so well!
In other cases where something wonderful is being created, the participants, or those who hear about the incident afterwards, lament… If only there were cameras there. Well, fortunately, there were four cameramen and a few lighting technicians to capture the historic event.
The footage survives and is the basis for this new documentary. In addition, Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and Sheila E. return to the darkened stage of A&M Studios to recount the details of that night. Their reminiscences are an invaluable record of this never-to-be-forgotten night.
According to internet sites, $64 million was raised by the distribution of the single “We Are the World”.
In 1985, Jane Fonda hosted a made-for-TV 50-minute documentary on the event called We Are the World. That show is available on disc. Safe to say that some of the same archival footage appears in both works. USA for Africa owns the footage.
With the release of The Greatest Night in Pop, award-winning filmmaker Bao Nguyen offers an artfully-crafted gem of a documentary.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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