1985-01-28 A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA

The recording of the vocals of the African relief single and its associated video with nearly every major-selling U.S.A. solo artist of that time present (Madonna and Prince being the often-noted absentees). Most of the artists arrived directly from the American Music Awards gala held nearby earlier in the evening. ("Dancing In The Dark" won the Best Single award but Bruce didn't attend the ceremony – he flew in from his previous night's gig at the last moment.) The session didn't start until very late on the 28 so, technically speaking, most of the events took place in the early hours of January 29. Bruce's vocal performance is a standout. Clyde Kaplan sent his recollections of the night to Brucebase: "I was an assistant engineer at A&M Studios from 1981 to 1986, including the night of January 28, 1985, the night of the We Are The World vocal recording sessions. (The track was recorded earlier in the week at Lion's Share Studios.) We had a large studio, Studio A, which was used for the vocal sessions. We also had a large sound stage which had a video feed from the studio as well as food and drinks for the friends and family of the artists. But one of the biggest selling features for A&M was our gated parking lot. Most of the artists came by limo after the American Music Awards and were driven through the gates and dropped off at the studio door. Not Bruce. Bruce had flown in from a show in Syracuse, rented a car and drove himself to A&M. He came in to the control room and I heard him say, "I got a great place to park… right across the street. A great moment for me was Bruce singing his solo at the end of the song. It was probably 4am. We had just finished Bob Dylan doing his solo. Bruce went to the mic to do his part. From where I was in the control room, my view was Bruce on the left, the microphone on the right, and directly in between and about 10 feet behind, watching, stood Bob Dylan."

U.S.A. For Africa Recording Session

U.S.A. For Africa

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