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One of the top new documentary films on Netflix this week is The Greatest Night in Pop, looking back at the behind-the-scenes of the iconic We Are The World Recording.
Following the huge success of UK supergroup Band Aid’s charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas, US stars knew they could do something similar in 1985.
Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones set to work on We Are The World in aid of African victims of famine, in what became the ninth best-selling physical single of all time.
Using their star power they managed to get the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Paul Simon and more for the supergroup USA for Africa.
However, a huge star declined to take part despite a long phone call from Jones and other tactics.
Originally Huey Lewis’ solo on We Are The World was meant for Prince, while His Royal Badness’ longtime collaborator felt she was only involved in the project to try and woo him. After all, she wasn’t even given a solo part in the charity recording.
As for why Prince turned down taking part, his shyness was a factor but so was the involvement of the man he had an on-going feud with, Jackson.
The Purple One offered an instrumental solo, but Jones’ response was “I don’t need him to play f***ing play guitar!” Prince also thought the song We Are The World, co-written by MJ, was “horrible”.
As for his feuding with Jackson, according to The Telegraph that goes back to their on-going rivalry as mega pop stars of the period. Initially, MJ had been bigger as part of the Jackson Five, before Prince won both an Oscar and a Grammy for 1983’s Purple Rain movie. This reportedly made the King of Pop fume as he had had hopes of hitting Hollywood himself.
Jackson and Prince had also shared the stage only once that year having been invited to by James Brown at the Beverly Theatre in Hollywood. Spotting in the audience by the Godfather of Soul, the two rivals were invited to impromptu performances. MJ kicked off with a Mr Dynamite duet alongside Brown before Prince played guitar. But according to Jackson, his musical nemesis “made a fool of himself” by taking his clothes off, swinging on a Papier-mâché lamppost and throwing himself into the crowd. The King of Pop later reflected on the antics of Prince, who would himself feel humiliated: “He was a joke… people were running and screaming I was so embarrassed.”
If that wasn’t enough, according to Jones, Jackson was insultingly nicknamed Camille by Prince and one time the guitarist allegedly even tried to run him over with a limousine.
Speaking previously with GQ, the producer said: “He knew. Michael knows s***. He was there. He said that was his intention.”
Despite all this. MJ asked Prince to duet with him on the title track of his 1987 album Bad, but would be brutally snubbed. To find out more on that story, click here.
