Engaging, revealing documentary for Netflix on the recording of 1985's #1 hit charity song "We Are the World" by USA For Africa, a response to the famine devastating Ethiopia. With 10 days to go before the American Music Awards in late January--wherein the celebrity singers would be wrangled for an after-awards all-night recording session--Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson still haven't come up with a song (Stevie Wonder was Richie's first choice as songwriting partner, but Wonder failed to return Richie's phone messages for three weeks). Richie (surprisingly frank and affable) recounts the chaos at Jackson's house with his menagerie of pets interrupting the songwriting process; also, Richie was hosting the awards show and planning a tour for his album. Producer-arranger Quincy Jones, who got Jackson involved, loved what the duo came up with, yet there's no mention the song they created sounded a bit cheesy--less its UK-counterpart "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and more "It's a Small World (After All)" (Bruce Springsteen says upon first hearing the demo that he thought it was "broad."). However, even if you are not a fan of the song--at least not after the first 100 times you heard it--this document of its gestation period and realization is quite entertaining. Many of the participants are here for interviews and, as history proved, the product was met with adulation and some $80M in famine relief. It was a night to remember, as they say...and don't forget, when you're singing with a group on risers, "Groove from your knees and not from your feet." *** from ****
