In the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, tensions are high as more than 40 of the top musicians of the ’80s, including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross and Cyndi Lauper, only have a few late night hours to record the anthem “We Are the World.”
The tension is so palpable that it was still present decades later at the January premiere of the documentary, recalls Lionel Richie, who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson and was a producer on the doc.
“When we did the premiere, Huey Lewis was sitting with me, and he leaned over to me and said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to make it.’ And I said, ‘Huey, it was 40 years ago. We made it,’” Richie says, laughing.
The song…