The greatest night in pop happened Jan. 28, 1985, according to this documentary. After the American Music Awards concluded, a collection of the most popular and gifted musical artists of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s left the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and gathered in a small studio to record a song that was written the week before.
One by one, 46 artists stepped out of their rides and entered the studio: Michael Jackson, Kenny Rogers, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Lionel Ritchie, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Bette Midler, Lindsay Buckingham, Bruce Springsteen … just to name a few.
Anyone can search the internet and find the 7-minute music video that was shot that same evening and released as a promotion for the song. But most don’t know that every minute of the whole event was captured on film. However, the 12 hours of rare content was stashed away (and almost lost) because of one major problem: the video contained no audio.
To everyone’s surprise, decades later, an audio recording was discovered—one studio mic in the corner was live and picked up faint audio of that night. But the quality was so bad, it was largely unusable. Not until recent technological advances was the audio able to be enhanced and then painstakingly synced up with the silent film. “The Greatest Night in Pop” is a fascinating and unique audio/video documentary of that night.
The song We Are the World was released March 7, 1985, and topped music charts all over the globe. It also became the fastest-selling U.S. pop single in history. More importantly, the song helped raise $80 million ($222 million today) for humanitarian aid for those suffering from famine in Ethiopia.
We Are the World is a good reminder that people can come together, setting aside their fame, egos, schedules, and pride to accomplish something good for people who are suffering and in need. (Netflix, Rated PG-13 for strong language)
About the Author
Sam Gutierrez is the Associate Director at the Eugene Peterson Center for the Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary. More of his creative work can be found at printandpoem.com