WE ARE THE WORLD TURNS 40

A seed of creative chaos bloomed a beautiful song. 40-plus celebrities crammed in a single recording studio to give us ‘We Are The World’. 

Quincy Jones was the mastermind behind this legendary powerful sentiment. Jones was the producer of a record that would eventually go on to sell more than 7 million copies and raise more than $60 million for African famine relief.

Quincy Jones

However, before ‘We are the world’ could achieve this, it had to be captured on tape which was not an easy task considering over 40 artists from pop and rock luminaries gathered to record this masterpiece.

With only one chance to get the recording the way he and songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wanted it, Jones convened the marathon recording session of “We Are the World” at around 10 p.m. on the evening of January 28, 1985, immediately following the conclusion of the American Music Awards ceremony held just a few miles away.

Upon its release in 1985, it quickly became the first single to be certified multiplatinum.

Netflix has released a documentary showing the details of how the song came to be.

Titled ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’ the story is told by the people who made it happen, including camera crew, engineers, assistants, and musicians like Richie himself, who served as an executive producer of the film. And despite its popularity, there are still origin stories that you probably didn’t know.

Credit: Netflix.com & History.com