We Are The World
At 10:30pm on 28 January 1985, forty-five music stars assembled at A&M Studios in Hollywood, right after attending the American Music Awards ceremony across town. They had come to record a song none of them had heard before. By 8am the next morning, "We Are The World" was birthed to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Netflix’s documentary The Greatest Night in Pop tells the story of that night. I first watched the film over two years ago and immediately thought it a wonderful leadership movie. Here’s my review - go watch it and see if you spot these leadership lessons.
Quincy Jones - Only he could have run that room
Quincy Jones, the song’s producer, taped a handwritten sign at the studio entrance that said: "Check your ego at the door." Inside, the biggest names in music stood crowded around microphones set up choir-style, waiting to be told what to do. The sign seems like a platitude, until you watch Jones actually enforce his mandate for twelve straight hours, keeping megastars like Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan in place. He had produced for many of them across the decades. Everyone complied because of Jones’s track record and relationships. In leadership, status begets power, never the reverse.
Lionel Richie used his star appeal
The evening started with a mix of awe and guardedness. Already famous musicians confessed to feeling anxious being among other stars, some of whom they’ve idolised for years. Lionel Richie, who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson, spent the night managing the floor. He checked on nervous artists, kept the schedule moving, and smoothed tensions when they flared. It was 1985, and Richie was at the top of his game. He had clout, having just come from hosting and winning awards at the AMA gala. Richie leveraged his fame to do good for others.
Sheila E as bait for Prince
Prince never appeared. Sheila E, his girlfriend at the time and a talented percussionist, did. She has since said she came to realise her invitation was meant to lure the aloof Prince into the project - she wasn't invited on her own merit, but as a way to reach someone else. It's an uncomfortable truth about leadership: people do use people.
Huey Lewis conquered an ambush
When Prince's absence became final, Kenny Loggins, standing near the piano, suggested Huey Lewis take Prince’s solo. As if that weren’t enough, Jones also slotted Lewis to improvise a three-part harmony with Cyndi Lauper and Kim Carnes, on a line he'd not rehearsed. Lewis said the fear hit him the moment he was called up and it stayed with him throughout. His face in the footage said as much. But Lewis delivered marvellously - he turned an ambush into a win.
Stevie Wonder saw what Bob Dylan couldn't
Bob Dylan struggled to find his place throughout the night because pop wasn’t his genre. When his turn came, he froze at the microphone, unable to deliver his solo line. By his own account, he genuinely couldn't hear how the phrasing was meant to work. The seconds ticked as the room waited for Dylan. Remarkably, he asked Stevie Wonder to “play it one time” for him on the piano. Wonder did more than that - he sang the line in an impression of Dylan. Something moved in Dylan as he felt what Wonder imagined. It was a powerful coaching moment. Bob Dylan was stuck, he humbly asked for help, and Stevie Wonder freed him.
Al Jarreau and knowing what not to fix
By the small hours, Al Jarreau had had a fair bit to drink. He spent long stretches wandering the studio floor, cracking jokes, clowning between takes. Jones, deep in the work of managing over forty egos, largely let him be. There was limited time and he spent it where it mattered. Not every deviation is worth wasting authority on.
Waylon Jennings showed everyone has limits
At one point, Stevie Wonder casually suggested adding a line to be sung in Swahili. Waylon Jennings - a country music outlaw - got quietly roused up and left the studio for good. Richie recalls overhearing Jennings say, on his way out, that he didn't know what the line meant and wasn't going to sing it. The group dropped the Swahili idea, but Jennings never came back. Even the best-run room cannot hold everyone.
An icon made with feelings
When it was all done, Diana Ross started to cry. She didn’t want the evening to be over. In the film, today’s Richie also teared as he recalled the emotions of that evening that have stayed with him and others four decades later.
The night had started tensely, with most having come out of respect for Quincy Jones. The tone was set through Jones’s sign on the door. Each person then put their reputation, trust, fears and patience on the line.
Twelve hours and forty-five egos - that’s what it took to make that song … a song that’s become an icon for generations of musicians and fans.
"Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another." - Proverbs 27:17
*I am a leadership coach. I help leaders bring egos together to achieve good.
