We Are The World Prince compilation

Columbia Records

compilation

I tried to tell them that I didn’t want to sing. But I’d gladly write a song instead

The iconic fund raising track We Are The World was recorded at A&M Studios on 28 January 1985, right after the ceremony of the American Music Awards which had taken place at the Shrine Auditorium in Hollywood. It was the only guarantee all the participating stars would be in the same city together at the same time. Prince, who not only performed at the ceremony but also won three awards that night was hoped to attend the following recording session at A&M. In January 1985, with the year’s top selling single (When Doves Cry) and best performing album (Purple Rain) dominating the charts in 1984 and crowning him Billboard’s Artist of the Year, Prince was top of the invites to perform on the We Are The World single.

Despite calls to cajole him to the studio, Prince, who was barely two miles away at Carlos & Charlie’s nightclub on Sunset Blvd, would not be swayed to sing on the track. When two paparazzi attempted to capture images of Prince arriving at the club his bodyguards became heavy handed and punched two photographers. The incident was taken to court in January 1986.

Although Prince was prepared to record a guitar solo later, the song did not require one. Huey Lewis was instead given the line intended for Prince in the song, following Michael Jackson. It was highly likely Prince decided against participating because it would have been too uncomfortable for him, as someone who preferred even to send his sound engineer out of the studio while laying down his vocals on his own work, let alone looked on by 45 other vocalists whose number included idols Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. Living at Lionel Richie’s house in Beverly Hills at the time, Sheila E was asked to join in the main recording of We Are The World albeit in Sheila’s understanding her invitation had been offered in the hope to lure Prince to the session. Organisers Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie waited in vain for Prince to turn up at A&M as the session wound on but Prince was a no show.

We Are The World was released on 7 March 1985 and sold 20 million copies. It remains the eighth best selling single of all time. The accompanying album We Are The World followed on 23 April 1985, under Columbia Records.

Prince agreed to instead contribute a song for the LP. That was song 4 The Tears In Your Eyes, which he wrote on 31 January 1985. Prince cited he was unable to participate in the main single’s recording due to scheduling commitments for Purple Rain Tour. Although Prince was indeed performing the show in Texas the following day, on the evening of the single’s recording he was in reality just streets away at a Hollywood nightclub that night. Prince agreed to instead make his own specially written song as his contribution to the appeal, making it also Prince’s first appearance on a compilation album.

4 The Tears In Your Eyes was recorded by Prince and The Revolution outside the New Orleans Superdome – the location of tour at that time – during a free day between shows, 2 February 1985, using a mobile studio set up outside the venue. The accompanying video was shot at Studio Instrument Rentals (SIR) on Sunset Blvd, LA on 4 June featuring just Prince and Wendy Melvoin. It was televised on the night of the LiveAid concert on 13 July 1985. In this video, Prince plays a Taylor 12-string acoustic guitar (the only time he is ever seen playing this instrument) and sporting a new short haired look in preparation for filming Under The Cherry Moon. The very next day after shooting his video 4 The Tears In Your Eyes he and The Revolution shot the promo video for Raspberry Beret at the same studios.

The longer acoustic version of 4 The Tears In Your Eyes was recorded on 4 June 1985 at SIR studios as filmed for the supporting video. This version was commercially available only much later on 13 September 1993 in Prince’s greatest hits triple album The Hits/The B-Sides, the same compilation in which Hello makes its CD debut. Due to his non-participation at LiveAid, Prince had written Hello in response to the negative coverage he consequently received in the press: “We’re against hungry children, our record stands tall, but there’s just as much hunger here at home” he sings in Hello. The song also recalls the fracas with the photographers that night. Hello was issued as a non-album track, firstly as B-side for the UK 12″ issue of Raspberry Beret on 18 June 1985 and in the US 7″ single of Pop Life issued on 10 July 1985.

With herself a recipient of four Grammy nominations in 1985, Sheila E was an artist of national renown in her own right. Opening for Prince for his Purple Rain Tour, she shot to fame with her debut LP The Glamorous Life, which was produced by Prince. She would later become opening act for Lionel’s 1986 The Outrageous Tour, during which she promoted her upcoming self-titled third album Sheila E, her third and final LP released under Paisley Park Records. She joined Prince’s touring band in 1987 and played on two tours, quitting in 1989 to continue a solo career.

In January 1985, Bob Geldof berated Prince for not participating in the We Are The World single – “He was not there when he was asked to be. What a jerk.” In October 1985, responding to this criticism during his first ever TV interview and having given a song for the album, Prince was at pains to address the matter and said 4 The Tears In Your Eyes was created as a concession that was “the best thing for both of us… I don’t want there to be any hard feelings.”

The year 1985 would see another bad headline circulate in the press, as shortly after Purple Rain Tour, Prince’s bodyguard Charles “Big Chick” Huntsberry gave an interview with The National Enquirer in which was a made-up account of life inside Prince’s inner circle. That article ‘The Real Prince – He’s Trapped In A Bizarre Secret World of Terror’ was published on 7 May 1985. Huntsberry was paid $3,000 for the story, which he used to fund his cocaine addiction. The article portrayed Prince as paranoid and isolated. In subsequent years Huntsberry admitted the interview was based on outright lies and regretted selling his story. Huntsberry died aged 49 on 2 April 1990 following a heart attack. Prince held a concert to raise money for his family.