UAWIL #208: The Greatest Night In Pop Documentary

The Ugly American Werewolf in London Rock Podcast

Just before Christmas 1984, Harry Belafonte wanted US artists (and especially black artists) to create a charity album to benefit starving people in Africa as the Do They Know It's Christmas single by the days most popular UK bands was a huge success. He teamed up with manager to the stars Ken Kragen to put together the team that would write and record the lead single. Immediately, Ken enlisted his client, Lionel Richie, to write the song. Lionel and Ken knew they'd need all-star producer Quincy Jones to put it all together. Quincy thought it would be a good idea to get the biggest pop star in the world, Michael Jackson, involved and things snowballed from there as Ken brought on legends like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and artists that were popular at the time like Billy Joel, Kim Carnes, Cindy Lauper, Huey Lewis and more.

But how would they get all that talent in one room at one time? Ken devised the idea that so many would be in LA for the American Music Awards on January 28, 1985 so that would be the ideal time. But that was 5 weeks away!!! So Ken went about finding the venue and Lionel and Michael worked on the song. It was all kept very hush hush and even the artists didn't know where they were going after the AMAs until they were on the way. And to make the night even more stressful for Lionel, he was hosting the AMAs and was performing twice (not to mention collecting 6 awards that night). The documentary was a fascinating glimpse into one special night where all egos were put aside in order to record a special song for a worthy cause. If you haven't seen it on Netflix, check out The Greatest Night In Pop - it's a fascinating story!

Ugly American Werewolf in London Website

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