Posted on 02/02/2010 11:13:51 AM PST by SkyPilot
The charity anthem "We Are the World" has been rerecorded by 80 artists who came together in the same Hollywood studio where the original was cut 25 years ago.
Pink, Natalie Cole, Kanye West, Jennifer Hudson, Celine Dion, Brian Wilson and others stood shoulder-to-shoulder on risers at Henson Recording studios Monday night to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief.
"This one, the enthusiasm, I've never seen anything like it," said Lionel Richie, who wrote the original with Michael Jackson and oversaw the new version with music mogul Quincy Jones, 76.
Jones, who produced the 1985 anthem, announced last week that he planned to redo the song to benefit recovery efforts after the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12.
"We Are the World - 25 for Haiti" will premiere this month during coverage of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on NBC, according to a release from promoter AEG Live.
On Monday, stars converged on Studio A in the afternoon and stayed several hours. Richie and Jones worked with a select number of soloists, including Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, later into the night.
At one point during a break, the musicians broke out into an a cappella version of "Lean on Me," a classic moment jump-started by singer Melanie Fiona leaning on another artist because her feet were tired.
Gesturing with her hands, and shifting her headphones from ear to ear, Barbra Streisand recorded her solo over and over, completely absorbed in the recording process and stopping only to correct her pitch.
Later, a who's who of rappers, including Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J and Wyclef Jean, recorded an interlude written by Black Eyed Peas frontman and producer will.i.am.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
lindsey buckingham on the left and harry belefonte on the right
I thought it might have been Buckingham.
Meanwhile, Dylan looks like he’s thinking, “What am I doing here with all of these dopes.”
It sounds like one of Obama’s school kid songs.
Break a leg, or two.
oohhh the blimp in the front row is bette midler. i forgot she was that porky.
Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler, Cyndi Lauper,Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Michael the pervert Jackson, Paul Simon, dopey, sneezy, donner, blitzen, cupid, vixen, goofy, pluto, Bluto and Olyve Oyl.
I can understand preventing them from leaving the country until its all sorted out, but the way they are handling this is outragous.
How cool was that Aunt B. Jim, I think you may be on to something...globalization started around of Hands Across America...that is not far from truth.
Oops...switch names around.
.
What’s worse — all of that hoopla did not change a thing.
Nothing of a lasting nature as accomplished. If anything, things just got worse.
.
Well all we can say at this point is the full story really hasn’t come out as to what they knew and how they handled
this.
I always hated that stupid song and most of those idiots who sang it!
Just when I think I could not hate this song any more, they decide to remake it again.
They must have played that sound on a stinking loop on the radio for years. It was torture! And lucky me, my wife likes the dam* song! ugh.
Yes, "Do They Know its Christmas" was a much better song. At least it wasn't a monstously horrific treacly mess like We Are the World.
Musically, the best multistar benefit song of the era was the kick-ass "Sun City" one put together by Steve Van Zandt.
Wow, they got Richie Havens and Peter Noone in there. That’s pretty funny.
Kool and the Gang.
I never could figure that out either.
I forget why they did this in the 80’s.
And no, we are not the world.
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