# "We Are the World 25". Good God. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802 "2010-02-13T01:52:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wisp00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@Wisp00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisp00)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/61 "2010-02-14T05:15:18Z")
Julianne Hough is a country singer in the choir ---
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/62 "2010-02-14T06:57:40Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Same reason Jamie Foxx was there, he played a singer in a movie. [summarized from wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Foxx) Foxx began piano lessons at age five. He is releasing his fourth album in March 2010. He has been featured on several singles that have hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. His second album, Unpredictable, debuted at number two, and sold 598,000 copies in its first week. The following week, the album rose to number one, selling an additional 200,000 copies. To date, the album has sold 1.98 million copies in the United States, and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA. Foxx is the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for an acting role and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) > [@Meeko](#): > > Yeah, no reason for MJ to be in it. [snipped from wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World) To begin with, “We Are the World” was to be written by Jackson, Richie and Wonder. As Wonder had limited time to work on the project, Jackson and Richie proceeded to write “We Are the World” themselves…They began work on the song’s creation at Hayvenhurst, the Encino home of Jackson and his family. For a week, the two spent every night working on lyrics and melodies in the latter’s bedroom. They knew that they wanted a song which would be easy to sing and memorable…Jackson’s older sister, La Toya, watched the two work on the song, and later revealed that Richie only wrote a few lines for the track.[4] She stated that her younger brother wrote 99 percent of the lyrics, “but he’s never felt it necessary to say that”.La Toya further commented on the song’s creation in an interview with the American celebrity news magazine People. “I’d go into the room while they were writing and it would be very quiet, which is odd, since Michael’s usually very cheery when he works. It was very emotional for them.” Richie had recorded two melodies for “We Are the World”, which Jackson took, adding music and words to the song in the same day. Jackson stated, "I love working quickly. I went ahead without even Lionel knowing, I couldn’t wait. I went in and came out the same night with the song completed—drums, piano, strings, and words to the chorus."Jackson then presented his demo to Richie and Jones, who were both shocked; they did not expect the pop star to see the structure of the song so quickly… Sometimes you guys crack me up. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/63 "2010-02-14T07:00:42Z")
I totally agree that it sucks. Rather than inspiring me to donate money to Haiti, it inspired me to want to give some of the “singers” singing lessons. Seriously, a lot of them cannot sing, period. Good thing they included some “old timers,” to give it some class. And the rap section was embarrassing to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/64 "2010-02-14T07:35:17Z")
It wasn’t terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/65 "2010-02-14T09:02:30Z")
Are they going to release a full-length album like the original poseurs did? That one went to #1. When somebody suggested a second album should be released with contributions from such participants as Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Ken Kragen, manager for Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, shot this down saying such an album wouldn’t go to number one and it was important for such an album to go to number one. Silly me, I thought it was important to save some people’s lives. There was some heavy metal song at the time on which the guitarists made the ultimate sacrifice. They lowered the volume of their guitars to get a good recording. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/66 "2010-02-14T11:09:27Z")
Could Tony Bennet have possibly looked more out of place? Who was that guy with the plaid shirt, shaved head, and the shockingly pale skin? He looked like Sean Patrick Flannery’s stunt double from _Powder._ That rap section should never have seen the light of day. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/67 "2010-02-14T17:09:38Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > There was some heavy metal song at the time on which the guitarists made the ultimate sacrifice. They lowered the volume of their guitars to get a good recording. Th song was called “Stars,” by [Hear 'n Aid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear_%27n_Aid). A project that was largely put together by Ronnie James Dio. I remember that one well. It had like 24 guitar solos on it. Not to knock it, because it was a well-intentioned project, but the sheer number of guitar solos made it sound kind of Spinal Tap-ish. Come to think of it, I think Spinal Tap was actually one of the bands that participated. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/68 "2010-02-14T17:35:29Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > Could Tony Bennet have possibly looked more out of place? > > Who was that guy with the plaid shirt, shaved head, and the shockingly pale skin? He looked like Sean Patrick Flannery’s stunt double from _Powder._ Isaac Slade from The Fray. I thought it was okay at first, but it went completely off the rails at the end. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/69 "2010-02-14T21:41:07Z")
Where’s Mark David Chapman now that we need him? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/70 "2010-02-14T22:04:18Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > It wasn’t bad but went downhill really fast - with no brakes - right after Streisand. Toward the end I thought they were trying to get that “so bad it’s funny” effect. Yeah, who was that screamer who came on right after Babs? Waaaaay too much screaming from that point on. I thought Michael Jackson looked eerily similar to his appearance in the original. Thumbs down from me. ---
**Author:** ![shellofmyformerself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@shellofmyformerself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shellofmyformerself)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/71 "2010-02-14T22:28:21Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I remnemebr watching some documentary about the recording of the original song that was playing on MTV back in 1985, and they were all talking about “leaving their egos at the door,” and how it wasn’t about them, it was a totally selfless act for Ethiopia, etc. I watched an interview of Lionel Ritchie (can’t remember if it was on the Today Show or on Private Sessions?) and he mentioned that at the recording of the original, there was literally a sign above the door that said “Check your egos at the door”. The solo singers sang thier parts in the same studio, in front of the group. For this one, many of the solo singers were too embarassed and self-conscious to sing in front of the group. They actually did the recording in three separate rooms so that pople wouldn’t be too embarassed to sing thier parts in front of the others. Some of the singers actually refused to sing alone in front of the group. If I sounded like some of those folks, I wouldn’t want to sing live in front of them either! It’s obvious that many of them need to be “sweetened up” via synthesizers, autotuners, etc to sound halfway decent! Also, I appreicate many kinds of music but that one guy with the warbling voice thing? Irritated the hell out of me! ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/72 "2010-02-14T22:47:26Z")
I set my DVR to record something and when I went to watch it, this was at the beginning. I watched a little bit of it and started skipping forward. I stopped when it got to a group of people that looked like rappers. I literally laughed out loud! Since I was skipping around, I was hearing the traditional version of the song and was all of a sudden hit with a bad rap in the middle. It was like watching something on SNL. It also made me miss the first five minutes of Equilibrium.:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/73 "2010-02-15T03:20:14Z")
> [@tesseract](#): > > [summarized from wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Foxx) > > Foxx began piano lessons at age five. He is releasing his fourth album in March 2010. He has been featured on several singles that have hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. His second album, Unpredictable, debuted at number two, and sold 598,000 copies in its first week. The following week, the album rose to number one, selling an additional 200,000 copies. To date, the album has sold 1.98 million copies in the United States, and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA. Foxx is the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for an acting role and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. … > Sometimes you guys crack me up. Am I missing the part where it said Foxx had all his major hit albums before he played Ray Charles? Or that he didn’t actually continue to impersonate Ray in recordings after his portrayal of Ray? Sorry, I stand by my opinion that he played a famous singer in a movie and he’s built a recording career on that. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/74 "2010-02-15T03:29:02Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Are they going to release a full-length album like the original poseurs did? That one went to #1. When somebody suggested a second album should be released with contributions from such participants as Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Ken Kragen, manager for Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, shot this down saying such an album wouldn’t go to number one and it was important for such an album to go to number one. Silly me, I thought it was important to save some people’s lives. If you make a record and it bombs, how does that help anyone? I’m also not so cynical about the original record. > [@](#): > > There was some heavy metal song at the time on which the guitarists made the ultimate sacrifice. They lowered the volume of their guitars to get a good recording. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/75 "2010-02-15T03:36:34Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Sorry, I stand by my opinion that he played a famous singer in a movie and he’s built a recording career on that. I agree entirely, and he belongs to the same genre as Jennifer Lopez (J-LO/Selena) in that respect. Pop grotesqueries of manufactured talent. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/76 "2010-02-15T03:49:42Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Terrible. Was that T. Pain _with Autotune_? :smack: I counted at least three who used autotune. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/77 "2010-02-15T04:23:12Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > I counted at least three who used autotune. I was going to say ‘who DIDN’T use an autotune?’ hh ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/78 "2010-02-15T05:01:08Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Th song was called “Stars,” by [Hear 'n Aid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear_%27n_Aid). A project that was largely put together by Ronnie James Dio. I remember that one well. It had like 24 guitar solos on it. Not to knock it, because it was a well-intentioned project, but the sheer number of guitar solos made it sound kind of Spinal Tap-ish. Come to think of it, I think Spinal Tap was actually one of the bands that participated. Yup, they were there!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/79 "2010-02-15T14:17:41Z")
> [@Omega\_Glory](#): > > I thought it was okay at first, but it went completely off the rails at the end. Yeah, it was just an awful job of meshing the different genres. I think it would have been better to give some of the rap artists solos rather than having them all “rappping” as a chorus. Switching between 80s Michael Jackson and autotune and whatever Wyclef was doing was good for a laugh, though. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802/80 "2010-02-15T14:29:28Z")
> [@groo](#): > > Well, **I** can tell because when I hear it, my soul cries out in agony and I see a vision of a zombie Karen Carpenter rising angrily from the grave over a pile of dead 70s Motown singers to go forth into the night killing babies as hellfire covers the landscape and the angels, powerless, can do no more than look down and weep for all the pain endured by humanity since the beginning of time through the end of eternity. But that’s just me. You too? Wow, I thought I was the only one. (The only pop star whose use of autotune I will excuse is Cher, because she had a couple of decades demonstrating that she had real singing chops before using it as a gimmick. Everyone else - if you can’t sing in tune, STFU.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-the-world-25-good-god/528802.md?page=5)