“Please check your egos at the door,” said the sign outside the recording studio in Hollywood. Helpful reminder, since inside on that late night, Jan. 28, superproducer Quincy Jones was wrangling 46 of music’s biggest luminaries—Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and Bette Midler among them—into an all-star chorus to record “We Are the World.” (The date was chosen, in part, because the American Music Awards were held earlier that evening and everyone was in town, though Prince, scheduled to attend, was a no-show.) Under the U.S.A. for Africa banner, the anthem—inspired by Bob Geldof’s British Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” the previous December and released in March—was cowritten by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. It sold more than…
