For Your Turkey Day… Making ‘We Are the World’--Leadership, Teaming, & Feeling Good
Over the weekend, I watched the Netflix documentary (The Greatest Night in Pop) of the making of the recording of the song ‘We Are the World’ (1985) … It was my second viewing. This time with family. A joy…again!
On one level, it’s a trip down memory lane. Anyone who cares about/lived through popular music from Ray Charles on gets to see dozens of ‘stars’ as recognized in 1985 and many with career arcs into today (e.g., Bruce Springsteen, Cindy Lauper, Bob Dylan, and Stevie Wonder) or nearly so (e.g., Tina Turner). You get to see them at work. That’s fun…likely fun even if you didn’t experience Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick at their professional peaks.
On another level, it’s a fascinating story—from premise through execution and ongoing effect even today.
On yet another level, it’s one of those all-too-rare moments of people coming together triumphantly and joyously to help others—in this case starving children in Ethiopia.
Finally, it’s filled with illustrations of leadership and teaming among highly accomplished, usually ‘in charge’ independent performers.
The importance of spotting and building on good ideas. Geldof (Boomtown Rats & Band-Aid) generated ‘Aid’ music ... Harry Belafonte saw the ongoing problem—seemingly endless numbers (and growing) of starving children in Ethiopia. He took Geldof’s work, imported it to the USA and built on it.
Mission matters. Belafonte infected Ken Kragen with the cause and the premise. Kragen in turn enlisted a client Lionel Richie (Commodores’ frontman turned highly successful soloist). For production, Ritchie turned to Quincy Jones (legendary music producer—even then. Who else worked with Sinatra & MJ?). Ritchie and Jones enlisted MJ (Michael Jackson). Together they reached and enlisted hopelessly busy people, all in high demand by others willing to pay lots of money for even bits of their time. For those stars, this became a ‘gotta do thing’… right away and for free.
Relations & Reputation. That’s what got the phone answered and answered ‘yes’. Watch how fast the ‘yes. I’m in’ responses pile up--even though details, details like having a song to perform and how and where to perform it didn’t exist. It quickly became ‘for cause and for comrades.’ You can feel the momentum. It starts with who starts it—relations and reputation built over years…beginning with Belafonte (accomplished and limit crashing singer, actor, and social activist).
It’s not JUST about the mission. The value of good logistics comes through—Kragen is so connected that he travels with a suitcase filled with his Rolodex. Beat the prohibitive scheduling problem by recording the song immediately after the American Music Awards when ‘the stars gather’ anyway (albeit in only about a month!). Find a studio with a great sound. Secrecy, including redacted correspondence—no press, no staff, no fans… limit the distractions to the stars themselves.
Establish team rules. You don’t need a lot-just the important one(s). Jones posted a handwritten note for these stars, prima donnas, and divas, ‘Check your ego at the door’.
Clarify and Repeat Purpose. Bring purpose into the room explicitly--early on, concrete and simple. Jones has Bob Geldof address the group briefly about the importance of their work. Geldof includes a description of what he has seen in Africa and says, “I think it’s best to remember that the price for life this year is a piece of plastic 7” wide with a hole in the middle” (i.e., a record of the song you are about to create.)
Structure and preparation make improvisation possible. Advance work included careful grouping of singers for sections of the song (not all voices combine well) and just what they’d each sing. Additionally, Jones would oversee the production and Ritchie, ‘fresh’ from emceeing the AMA event/broadcast earlier that evening would work the production ‘floor’, monitoring and managing the artists in the moment… and then all but collapse afterward.
The value of colleague recognition and support. Track the support that these elite performers, competitors that they are, provide to one another AND seek from each other—how often they complete their section and ask for feedback. At one point, the gathering of stars begins circulating to gather one another's autographs—you can’t make this up. Above all, stop and watch as a shout-out for Belafonte as the progenitor of the effort leads to an impromptu collective rendition of ‘Day-O’—the song which originally brought Belafonte to the world. Belafonte, a star of epic proportions and treasured human being, all but glows as he absorbs and returns the glow that his peers offer him.
Wonder of Wonder. Stevie Wonder warrants multiple pages by himself. On one hand, he’s nearly impossible to corral (or even to get in step) and he’s disruptive-- proposing modifications to the song. On the other hand, he’s a constant warm, joyous light (loved and loving) burning throughout the long night of production and ends up, in effect, coaching a painfully struggling Bob Dylan on how to sing like Bob Dylan. Diversity of talent engaged means the possibility of diversity of talent applied…perhaps when one least expects it and yet especially needs it.
The verdict?
Springsteen: “People can look at the song and judge it aesthetically, but at the end of the day I looked at it as a tool, it was a tool, it was a tool they were trying to accomplish something with and as such it did a pretty good job.”
Diana Ross stayed. Last star there. Crying. Quincy Jones asks, ‘Diana, are you OK?’ Ross responds, ‘I don’t want this to be over.’
So,
Watch the documentary.
Watch with others.
Savor.
Channel the energy.
Act accordingly.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and to yours.
** Upcoming: Wharton Executive Education, Leading Organizational Change, 2/10-2/13/25. Hope to see you there & then.