“We Are the World” was recorded

We Are the World U.S.A. for Africa

Writer(s): Michael Jackson/Lionel Richie (see lyrics here) Released: March 7, 1985 First Charted: March 15, 1985 Peak: 14 US, 15 CB, 12 GR, 13 RR, 12 AC, 76 CW, 12 RB, 27 AR, 12 UK, 13 CN, 19 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, 0.25 UK, 20.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 694.16 video, 158.79 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Only in America. With ironic boasts of how they’d “check[ed] their egos at the door” SF at the behest of producer Quincy Jones, a slew of U.S. singers – “Mount Rushmore level legends” SS – lent their chops to “We Are the World,” a charity song which thematically “could be regarded as tub-thumping for America.” KL The lyrics naively proclaimed “the problems of the starving…to be no match for the power of positive thinking.” DM Billy Joel said most of the performers didn’t care for the song and that, if memory served, it was Cyndi Lauper who said to him, “It sounds like a Pepsi commercial.’” SF Much like the soft drink giant, though, it moved a lot of product, selling over a quarter million copies in one weekend AMG and leaping to #1 in a mere three weeks, the fastest since Elton John’s “Island Girl” in 1975. FB It was the only song to hit all five major Billboard charts of that time. “World” was the U.S. counterpart of “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” a song penned by singer Bob Geldof in response to a BBC documentary he saw about the Ethiopian famine. TB He enlisted many of the U.K.’s biggest pop stars for a charity single that movingly pondered how the starving Africans would spend their holidays. The song’s 3.5 million sales were bigger than the country had even seen. Singer Harry Belafonte decided the U.S. should undertake a similar project and called Ken Kragen, who managed Harry Chapin in delivering hundreds of benefit concerts devoted to fighting world hunger. SS He then contacted Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, and Jones, who had produced Jackson’s Thriller. Jackson and Richie took three days to work on it individually and then came together to write the song in a matter of hours. KL Along with Stevie Wonder, they recorded a vocal guide to give to each of the invited singers. RC On January 28, 1985, the day of the American Music Awards, 46 recording artists gathered to record the song in a 12-hour session. SF Vocalists, appearing in order, included: Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, and Ray Charles. Resources: AMG All Music Guide FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 605. KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 302. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 320-2. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Page 459. SF Songfacts.com SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 141-2. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 227. First posted 1/28/2012; last updated 5/1/2024.