- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- “We Are the World” became the fastest selling pop single in U.S. music history, with sales of 20 million copies, the eighth largest selling single of all time.
USA for Africa – We Are the World (1985): In response to a devastating famine in Africa in 1983–1985 that killed one million people, and inspired by the similar charity single called “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid in the U.K. that came out late the previous year, singer and social activist Harry Belafonte began to wonder how an American benefit single might be put together. A new non-profit foundation called United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa) would receive the proceeds from record sales as well as associated earnings. Belafonte recruited Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie to write the song “We Are the World”, and Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian to produce the track. The single became the fastest selling pop single in U.S. music history; with sales of 20 million copies, the song currently ranks as the eighth largest selling single of all time. Numerous other fundraising products were also created, including a music video, a VHS videocassette called We Are the World: The Video Event, books and magazines, posters, and T-shirts. Also, from Wikipedia: “On the morning of April 5, 1985 (Good Friday of that year) at 3:50 pm GMT, over 8,000 radio stations simultaneously broadcast the song around the world. As the song was broadcast, hundreds of people sang along on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. A year later, on March 28, 1986 (Good Friday of that year), the simultaneous radio broadcast of ‘We Are the World’ was repeated over 6,000 radio stations worldwide.” Overall, “We Are the World” generated $63 million in contributions; to date, USA for Africa has raised $100 million in all. The album We Are the World naturally opens with “We Are the World”, and Side 2 starts with the Canadian charity single by Northern Lights (Canadian All Stars) called “Tears Are Not Enough”. The remaining tracks are evidently unavailable elsewhere at that point in time – not even the “B” side of the “We Are the World” single, “Grace” by Quincy Jones is included on We are the World – and include several rarities by major artists; the recording artists also contributed to the “We Are the World” single, with the exception of Chicago. The Prince song “4 the Tears in Your Eyes” is by Prince and the Revolution; the only other version that has been released is a solo demo of “4 the Tears in Your Eyes” in the box set Hits/B-Sides (1993). Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band covers the Jimmy Cliff song “Trapped”. The Tina Turner song, “Total Control” is the second single from the Motels’ debut album Motels (1979); Tina Turner’s version of “Total Control” is included in her box set The Collected Recordings: 60s to 90s (1994). Kenny Rogers covers a song called “A Little More Love” that appears on the debut album S-K-O of a country music vocal group called Schuyler, Knobloch, and Overstreet (also known as S-K-O), although their album didn’t come out until 1986. The song was written by two of the members of this group, Tom Schuyler and Fred Knobloch. The other member of S-K-O, Paul Overstreet was already becoming a leading country music songwriter. Kenny Rogers’ cover of “A Little More Love” appears on his retrospective album A Love Songs Collection (2008).