Truly, the Greatest Night
by Dirk Voetberg
Some things I learned in The Greatest Night in Pop, Netflix’s new documentary about the making of “We Are the World”:
Steve Perry was called in last minute to cover for Tom Waits who hopped the wrong freight train and wound up in Butte.
Philip Glass’s suggested line (“Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, ten, eleven, nine”) was revised with Lionel Richie’s help to “It’s true we’ll make a better day, just you and me.”
Billy Joel started a fire in the A&M Studios bathroom.
Kim Carnes to Kenny Rogers: “No, that’s Bonnie Tyler. I did ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’” Carnes to Warwick: “No, that’s Bonnie Tyler. I’m ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’”
Carnes to Dylan: “No, I’m not Blondie. That’s a group. I did ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’”Lindsey Buckingham seemed oddly adamant about not loaning his last dollar bill to Dylan for Doritos from the vending machine.
Stevie Wonder, endowed with a heightened sense of hearing due to his blindness, discerned about two hours into the session—and explained to Daryl Hall—that the song is actually not very good.
The famous “USA/Africa” sweatshirt every artist was given at the studio was Henry Rollins' first ever upper-body garment. Diana Ross trained him on how to put it on.
The six seconds of silence (except for the sound of Springsteen flipping through a Far Side calendar in the back of the studio) between Cyndi Lauper and Huey Lewis' parts is John Cage's solo.
Michael Jackson so beautifully and delicately uttered "Fuuuuuuck me" at one point as he realized he forgot to feed his lion pride.
Quincy Jones could never quite figure out where in the song to put Dan Aykroyd bending over with his butt-crack showing.
Daft Punk’s part had to, in the end, be nixed from the final mix due to contractual issues: “3. b. (ii) No artist may participate if they are from the future.”
We see Lionel Richie have a bit of a moment when he realizes he invited Kim Carnes because he thought she was "the lady who did 'Total Eclipse of the Heart.'"
The clean version of the song leaves out an entire verse of Ray Charles’s part.
Paul Simon begrudgingly came in and phoned in his part after his request was refused to literally phone it in.
GG Allin came up with a great idea for his stage act when he couldn't get in the burning A&M Studio bathroom.
Waylon Jennings asked Tina Turner during a break why they didn't invite that Amadeus guy “who's so big nowadays.”
Bette Midler was the one who suggested the title and lyric be shortened to "We Are the World" from the original "We Are (name of each singer alphabetically)."
The song is about heroin. ◊
DIRK VOETBERG is a writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles.
"Stevie Wonder, endowed with a heightened sense of hearing due to his blindness, discerned about two hours into the session—and explained to Daryl Hall—that the song is actually not very good. "
Amen to that. They can make all the documentaries they want pretending otherwise, but "We Are the World" is the poster child for why my generation became the first generation in history for whom our parents' music was self-evidently better than our own.