Michael Jackson Fans ONLY

 

22nd January 1985 - The first recording session for the song We Are The World was held at Kenny Rogers' Lion Share Recording Studio.

Jackson and Richie began work on the song's creation at Hayvenhurst, the Encino home of Jackson family. For a week, the two spent every night working on lyrics and melodies in the singer's bedroom. They knew that they wanted a song which would be easy to sing and memorable. The pair wanted to create an anthem. Following several months of working together, the duo completed the writing of "We Are the World" one night before the song's first recording session.

The first night of recording had tight security on hand, as Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder and Quincey Jones started work on We Are the World. The studio, on Beverly Boulevard in California, was filled with musicians, technicians, video crews, retinues, assistants and organizers as the four musicians entered. To begin the night, a "vocal guide" of "We Are the World" was recorded by Richie and Jackson and duplicated on tape for each of the invited performers. The guide was recorded on the sixth take, as Quincy Jones felt that there was too much "thought" in the previous versions.

Following their work on the vocal guide, Jackson and Jones began thinking of alternatives for the line "There's a chance we're taking, we're taking our own lives": the pair were concerned that the latter part of the line would be considered a reference to suicide. As the group listened to a playback of the chorus, Richie declared that the last part of the line should be changed to "We're 'saving' our own lives", which his fellow musicians agreed with. Producer Jones also suggested altering the former part of the line. "One thing we don't want to do, especially with this group, is look like we're patting ourselves on the back. So it's really, 'There's a choice we're making.'" At around 1:30 am, the four musicians ended the night by finishing a chorus of melodic vocalizations, including the sound "sha-lum sha-lin-gay". Jones told the group that they were not to add anything else to the tape. "If we get too good, someone's gonna start playing it on the radio", he announced.