We Are The World: U.S.A For Africa

Artist: Various Artists
Label: Polygram Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 042282482228
EAN: 0042282482228
ASIN: B000001FCX

Release Date: 1990-10-25

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Tracks:

We Are The World - U.S.A. For Africa
If Only For The Moment, Girl - Steve Perry
Just A Little Closer - Pointer Sisters
Trapped - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Tears Are Not Enough - Northern Lights
4 The Tears In Your Eyes - Prince & The Revolution
Good For Nothing - Chicago
Total Control - Tina Turner
A Little More Love - Kenny Rogers
Trouble In Paradise - Huey Lewis & The News

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Customer Reviews:

Dan Akroyd at his finest.......2005-07-20

I was the biggest fan in america of the USA for Africa group. I had heard about them and figured the album would be great. There had to be a great deal of excitement when you had the talent of Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Steve Perry, Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen on the same track. Well, something happened on the way to heaven. Dan Akroyd absolutely steals the show on this album. I remember seeing the "We are the world" video and being blown away by Akroyd's performance in the video. I knew he was funny, but he was just on his game on this album. Bravo sir Dan!

I remember being moved by the whole USA for Africa experience and put together a benefit album called, "East Douglas county for North Omaha". What an all star lineup. You had me on vocals along with Kevin Seitzer, Kroll, Meat, Jeff Benson and Julie Powers. Burns played the most gutwrenching keyboard riff ever heard on an album and members of meat's family piped in some truly old school polka. It was a great song for a great cause. We raised $3.78 for North Omaha. We made a difference.

I used to love this song!!.......2004-06-06

I was 8 when this album came out. My parents have it on tape and we used to listen to this all the time. I would like to get the CD because the tape is starting to go. I remember watching the video segement and the making of it because we have it on video somewhere. It was for a great charity and needs to be released again. The singers of today should record it again and do it for charity.

We Are The Hits (that never were).......2004-03-07

First of all: DON'T buy this CD just for the title song (Unless you need it for a special project) AND, don't buy it to help starving people in Africa. That boat sailed a long time back. For some reason, this CD has been Out Of Print for ages, so the proceeds will go to the reseller who has to charge a MINT for it because of its scarcity. So, WHY BUY IT? Bruce Springsteen, Steve Perry, Chicago, Tina Turner, Huey Lewis, Kenny Rogers, The Pointer Sisters and Prince. If you're a fan of any of those artists: the extra songs unique to the collection are among the best they've done. They're all superstars trying to one up each other. So, they're great. Each song could have been (and should have been) a hit single. Bruce Springsteen's first official (non seasonal) live release with the E Street Band "Trapped" is a great take on a Jimmy Cliff song. I can't get the tune out of my head. Steve Perry's contribution blows away his solo hit as well as most Journey tunes. Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, Huey Lewis & The News and The Pointer Sisters were all hot at the time too, and their tracks show it, too. We Are The World is a triumph of Quincy Jones and and an apparently still on top of his game, Michael Jackson, trying to squeeze the kitchen sink into one song. They did it, and it has worn out its welcome for most listeners, but all in all, this is a great collection anyway because We Are The Hits you haven't heard.

Charity rock or one big Pepsi jingle?.......2004-02-28

USA For Africa's We Are The World was a well-intentioned helping hand for Ethiopian famine victims. To that aid, an all-star ensemble of artists comprising a cross-section of American artists, mostly pop, rock, and soul, sang the title track, initially solo bits with artists like co-writers Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Rogers, and Stevie Wonder, before they all sung in unison. While this song helped me identify this unhip guy who was who, back in the day when he was struggling to choose what to listen to, in retrospect, this sounds more like a seven minute Pepsi jingle that went to #1 on the charts and won the Grammy for Best Single.

As for the other songs, most don't come close to the usual oeuvre of the artists concerned. Most of all, what relevance do they have to the issue of starvation? Take off the "We Are The World" song and this might as well be an odds and sods albums of tracks by well-known 80's artists unreleased on their respective albums because they weren't up to scratch.

"If Only For The Moment, Girl" by Steve Perry, is nothing special and something that might've been a B-side on any of his Street Talk singles. And the Pointer Sisters' inject a muted dose of their sassy hokum on "Just A Little Closer." Call this one "I'm Not So Excited."

A live version of Bruce Springsteen's "Trapped," originally by Jimmy Cliff, follows. Keyboard fills and rhythm guitar are heard while the Boss sings the verses, then Max Weinberg's drums and the guitars rise to a crescendo as Springsteen sings the chorus. One of the better songs here.

Canada's own joint artist collaboration, billed as Northern Lights present "Tears Are Not Enough," which follows the same initial individual vocals followed by a joint singalong. Loverboy's Paul Dean does guitar, Bryan Adams collaborator Jim Vallance is on drums. Adams, Dan Hill, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Geddy Lee, Anne Murray, Aldo Nova, Jane Siberry, future Heart-producer Dalbello, Bruce Cockburn, Corey Hart, Mike Reno, John Candy (!!), and Burton Cummings are among the vocalists. This is shorter and has less carbonation than "We Are The World."

The only track that bears a direct bearing is Prince and the Revolution doing the sober "4 The Tears In Your Eyes." It's a simple song about Jesus and his healing, preaching, and helping others, helped by the vocal harmonies by Wendy and Lisa. If I was to put it on one of his albums for sound consistency, it'd have to be Parade. A different version of this ended up on his The Hits/B-Sides compilation.

Peter Cetera was still with Chicago when they did "Good For Nothing", this decent-sounding light rock number about feeling slighted for not receiving thanks for helping some people out seems contradictory for the purposes of giving on this album.

The studio version of "Trouble In Paradise" by Huey Lewis and the News can be found on their debut album. This is a live recording in February 1985 complete with Tower of Power horns and some great sax by Newsman John Colla.

After making her comeback with Private Dancer, Tina Turner does a song that wouldn't have been a C-side song, the plodding "Total Control." Kenny Rogers does the brisk "A Little More Love," again a worthy song, but lyrically, nothing to do with charity.

As the grandaddy of 80's charity rock albums, We Are The World definitely deserves that accolade. However, some things make this effort a bit suspect. The line "we're saving our own lives" has an implication that they're singing about their own salvation. Surely none of the artists here would experience starvation or meet those Ethiopians who are starving?

And a cogent critical observation Jackson Browne made also makes a point: "That's the problem with North America. We think we ARE the world." In other words, geopolitical bias.

Despite its charitable intentions, this effort mutes the usually leftist stance in rock by rightist corporate yuppie materialism.

I aint got the cd.......2003-11-22

but ive got two of the tracks on it (We Are The World and 4 The Tears In Your Eyes) and they are amazing.

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