The Greatest Night in Pop (2023 | USA | 96 minutes | Bao Nguyen)
Hard to believe there hasn’t already been an authoritative documentary on the making of “We Are the World“, but it’s still very cool to sit down in a room with Lionel Ritchie as he recounts the navigating the conception, songwriting, logistics, and personalities of getting so many stars to agree to record an overnight charity hit. With a ton of great archival footage, there’s the perpetual drama of which famous people will walk into frame to share their personal recollections of the magical and unlikely musical moment.
For those too young to remember, amid horrific famine in Africa, the world’s musicians scrambled to find any way to respond. In England, Bob Geldof pulled together a bunch of UK singers to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas” to raise money and awareness in 1984. Seeing the success of their efforts, Harry Belafonte was determined to have the US, particularly artists of color, make a similar effort. Through his leadership, longtime friends Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson paired up (among the menagerie of animals at Jackson’s home) to put together the music, Quincy Jones committed to producing, and a superstar agents started calling in favors. The documentary frames just how much of the effort was pulled together by determination, small miracles, reputation-based favors, and the convergence of celebrities at the American Music Awards.
The story plays out almost like a heist, with a calendar ticking away in the months and days leading up to the recording session and a digital clock tracking the long tired and wired hours actually spent in the room. Of course, we know that the song will get made, but Nguyen infuses the proceedings with the drama of both the event as surprises in terms of who from the astonishing lineup he gets to participate in the retrospective.
Someone like Huey Lewis becomes the everyman ambassador to convey the dreamlike quality of so many pop music icons crowding into a hot room all night, mostly checking their egos at the door and finding themselves starstruck. We hear from producers, cameramen, and others whose agency rolodexes were instrumental in pulling off the seemingly impossible feat. Amid these interviews, there are incredible pieces of footage: Michael Jackson in full Thriller-era regalia laying down isolated vocal tracks in the still-empty recording studio; Bob Dylan appearing to be supremely confused about what he’s doing there; Cyndi Lauper’s jewelry creating ghosts in the machine. The whole thing has a dreamlike quality and even all these years later no one bothers to explain how Dan Ackroyd got an invite.
The Greatest Night in Pop played as an official selection of the Episodic Program at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It’s already acquired by Netflix and will play great there.
Image courtesy Sundance Institute.