Waylon Jennings is nowhere to be found in the video for "We Are the World," even though he's
credited on the album – and the reason he stormed out of the recording session may surprise you.
In late 1984, music legend and humanitarian Harry Belafonte
spearheaded an effort to bring emergency relief to famine-ravaged Africa. The idea
was a charity single featuring America's best known music stars.
"We had everyone to stand next to each other. There's Paul Simon, there's Bob Dylan.”
“Check your ego at the door!"
The result was "We Are the World," a star-studded 1985 single benefitting the nonprofit USA for
Africa Foundation. One of the fastest-selling pop singles in music history, "We Are the World"
ultimately sold more than 20 million copies, raising a staggering $75 million. It also
went on to win four Grammy Awards, including awards for both record and song of the year.
The song remains one of the music industry's most successful charitable endeavors ever. Sadly,
during the decades that have passed since the release of
the single, several of the stars who participated are no longer with us.
Landing Kenny Rogers for "We Are the World" was a major coup,
given the massive degree of success that Rogers had experienced during
the late 1970s and early '80s on his way to over two dozen #1 country hits.
Not only did Rogers contribute vocals to the single, sharing a microphone
with fellow legend Paul Simon, he also made a lesser-known but equally important contribution
to "We Are the World." According to KCRW, Rogers offered his own Lion Share Recording
Studios in Beverly Hills for a secret recording session where Lionel Richie,
Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Quincy Jones created the backing track
the night before the main vocals were recorded with the rest of the stars.
Rogers remained a popular live performer until his death in 2020 at the age of 81. As his obituary
in The New York Times pointed out, he was the first country artist to perform at the kind of
arenas typically reserved for major rock and pop acts, and sold in excess of 100 million records.
Given his long association with producer Quincy Jones, it wasn't surprising that honey-voiced
R&B singer James Ingram would be tapped to contribute a verse. Among his many hits were:
a collaboration with Michael Jackson that appeared on the latter's iconic "Thriller"
album; "Yah Mo B There," a 1983 duet with Doobie Brothers frontman Michael McDonald;
and "Somewhere Out There," his chart-topping duet with Linda
Ronstadt from the soundtrack to the animated feature "An American Tail."
Ingram's smooth baritone arrives fairly early in the song, wedged directly between verses
sung by Kenny Rogers and Tina Turner. Ingram also made quite an impression visually. As
Rolling Stone's minute-by-minute breakdown of the "We Are the World" video quipped,
"James Ingram has shown up for the session in a shiny silver tracksuit,
as if he came directly from a workout on the space shuttle."
Ingram died at age 66 in January 2019,
with outlets reporting at the time that he'd been suffering from brain cancer. Quincy
Jones shared a statement with Billboard to celebrate Ingram's talent, saying:
"With that soulful, whisky-sounding voice, James Ingram was simply magical [...] Every
beautiful note that James sang pierced your essence and comfortably made itself at home."
Tina Turner was in a unique position when she walked into A&M Studios to record her part for "We
Are the World." After leaving Ike Turner almost a decade earlier, halting both their notoriously
troubled marriage and successful musical partnership, she was considered by many to be
a washed-up has-been until the arrival of her 1984 "Private Dancer" album. That marked the comeback
of all comebacks that propelled her to a higher degree of fame than she'd ever experienced before.
Things did get a little punchy in the recording session,
which ran into the wee hours of the morning,
leaving people tired and hungry. After Turner completed her verse, she triumphantly yelled,
"Fish burger! FISH BURGER! Dun don don don don! Dun Don!"
For Turner, appearing among the stars on "We Are the World" was
the cherry on top of what is arguably the most celebrated era in her career;
less than a month after that recording session, she won three Grammy Awards. Her success continued
another quarter-century until she retired after her 50th anniversary tour in 2009
Turner died in May 2023 at the age of 83,
with The Guardian's obituary reporting that her death came after a lengthy illness.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died in 2009 at the age of 50;
his death was ultimately ruled to be a homicide, the result of his doctor
prescribing propofol — a powerful anesthetic used for sedation during surgery — as a sleep aid.
Jackson's contribution to "We Are the World" was a major one, co-writing the song with Lionel Richie,
and working in the studio to create the bedrock track to which the vocals
were later added. This included Jackson multitracking his own background vocals.
For Richie, co-writing the song with Jackson was a memorable experience — although perhaps not for
the reasons most people might assume. Richie recounted during an onstage MusiCares event,
"I'm at Michael's house trying to write 'We Are the World' and
his dog is barking and his Mynah bird is yelling 'Shut up' [at the dog]."
Then a massive white python appeared, knocking over a stack of records as it approached Richie.
When Jackson said the snake just wanted to play, Richie wasn't having any of it. He recalled:
"I said, 'You're out of your freaking mind.' It took me about two hours to calm my ass back down."
"I was screaming like the last woman in a horror movie. I was screaming
so loud. And he kept saying, 'why are you screaming?' I said, 'baby, that's a snake.'"
Blessed with a voice so smooth it could make silk jealous,
Al Jarreau was known for jazz-inflected R&B hits such as "We're In This Love Together,"
"Mornin'," and the theme from the hit TV series "Moonlighting." Jarreau died in 2017,
aged 76, concluding a music career that spanned six decades.
As video outtakes from the "We Are the World" recording session demonstrate,
Jarreau did not exactly nail his part in one take. In fact,
Jarreau — sharing a microphone with the unlikely duo of Dionne Warwick and Willie
Nelson — repeatedly messed up, stepping on Nelson's vocals and missing his cue.
That wasn't the only embarrassment that Jarreau would endure. As the Independent recalled,
he became completely starstruck when Bob Dylan arrived. Jarreau,
who was a huge fan, accosted Dylan to share his appreciation for his
work. According to Life magazine's David Breskin, who was in the studio at the time,
Dylan had just completed his verse in the song, but wasn't particularly happy
with what he'd done. It was at that moment that Jarreau cornered Dylan and told him,
"Bobby, in my own stupid way I just want to tell you I love you."
Dylan responded by avoiding eye contact and simply walking away. As Dylan exited,
Jarreau burst into tears, sobbing, "My idol!"
There's no denying that Ray Charles — who died in 2004 at age 73 — held elder-statesman status in
the "We Are the World" recording session, having laid the groundwork for rock and
soul music with such piano-driven classics such as "What'd I Say" and "Hit the Road,
Jack." That certainly proved to be the case for Billy Joel. As Life
magazine's David Breskin recounted, Joel was awestruck when Charles entered the studio,
and was physically shaking when he was introduced to him by producer Quincy Jones. Joel said,
"That's like the Statue of Liberty walking in."
In footage taken during the session, Charles is seen nailing his part in one soulful take,
reading the lyrics by running his fingertips across a sheet of paper on which they'd been
translated into Braille as he danced and stomped his feet. Charles then took a seat at a grand
piano to contribute a keyboard flourish to the song. Lionel Richie told Esquire,
"When Ray came in and opened his mouth, we just kinda all fell over in the corner and said,
'Wow, did you hear that? That's Ray Charles.' It was just brilliant."
Waylon Jennings put the "outlaw" in the outlaw country genre, known for such hits as "Luckenbach,
Texas," "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys," and the classic
theme from the TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard." Jennings' hard-drinking,
fast-living lifestyle caught up with him in 2002,
when he died in his sleep due to complications from diabetes at the far-too-young age of 64.
For readers racking their brains trying to remember
Jennings' contribution to "We Are the World" and coming up blank,
there's a reason for that. Jennings didn't have a solo performance on the track and
doesn't appear in the video — although he was there at the session, and is credited.
According to the Independent, at issue were some gibberish lyrics that Michael Jackson
had written to appear at the end of the chorus. Bob Geldof — who is featured in the "We Are the
World" chorus and would go on to launch Live Aid — reportedly took issue with the words,
fretting that they could be misconstrued as mockery of an African language. Seeking an
alternative, Stevie Wonder called up a Nigerian pal, who suggested a Swahili phrase instead. The
resulting argument dragged into the wee hours of the morning, and Jennings walked out, declaring,
"No good old boy sings in Swahili."
Ultimately, the Swahili line was cut,
but accounts differ as to whether or not Jennings returned after it was.
The late Harry Belafonte, whose desire to raise money for famine relief efforts in
Africa led to "We Are the World," joined in as a member of the chorus. Belafonte came to be
known as the "king of Calypso" for introducing Caribbean music into the American pop lexicon,
racking up such hits as "Jump In the Line." He died in April 2023 at the age of 96.
Belafonte was at the center of one of the most heartwarming anecdotes to emerge from
the recording of "We Are the World." As the chorus completed its final recording, most of the
participants launched into an impromptu a cappella rendition of Belafonte's classic "Banana Boat."
As video of the moment indicates, not everyone sang along, possibly because some didn't know
the lyrics. Al Jarreau wound up taking control of the singalong, animatedly leading the singers
through the verses and choruses of Belafonte's classic song, as a grinning Belafonte sang
along until the song ended and the assemblage of superstars honored him with a round of applause.
When "We Are the World" was recorded, The Pointer Sisters were coasting on
the success of a string of hits that included the iconic "I'm So
Excited." The group originally consisted of Anita, June, Ruth, and Bonnie Pointer,
before the act scaled down to a trio when Bonnie left in 1977 to pursue a solo career.
The three-woman version of The Pointer Sisters were invited to participate in the "We Are the
World" recording session. Despite their bevy of hits, none of the three were asked to take a vocal
solo, but they appeared in the chorus. In the years following "We Are the World," June Pointer,
the youngest of the four sisters, struggled with substance abuse. After exiting rehab in 1998,
she told People she was happy to be back working with her sisters saying,
"It's been a long road for all of us."
"I was 13 years old when I started using drugs. It's almost like a lifestyle."
Sadly, she subsequently relapsed and was asked to leave the group in 2004. That same year,
when she was 50, she was arrested and charged with cocaine possession. She was eventually
sentenced to 18 months in rehab; it was during this time that she was diagnosed with cancer,
which had come to metastasize in her liver, pancreas, and lungs.
June Pointer died in 2006. She was just 52 when she finally succumbed to cancer.
Anita Pointer was also on hand for the "We Are the World Session," joining her siblings June
and Ruth in the chorus. As the 1980s gave way to the '90s, The Pointer Sisters popularity faded,
and they would never recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle success they'd
experienced during the early 1980s. However, the group continued to perform, with Ruth's daughter
brought in to replace June when her issues with drugs led her to be kicked out of the group.
Anita Pointer died in December of 2022 at the age of 74. Like June,
her death was due to cancer. She was preceded by daughter Jada,
who passed away from cancer in 2003, and sister Bonnie, who died in 2020 of cardiac arrest.
Her family said in a statement,
"While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now
with her daughter Jada and her sisters June and Bonnie and at peace. She was the one that kept
all of us close and together for so long. Her love of our family will live on in each of us."
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).