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Dan Aykroyd sang as part of the ensemble chorus on USA for Africa’s 1985 recording of “We Are the World.” He was not a featured soloist, and the released mix does not let listeners reliably identify a lyric or timestamp as his alone. Aykroyd later recalled that an accidental visit to a talent manager’s office led to his invitation.
When does Dan Aykroyd sing on “We Are the World”?
Aykroyd’s contribution was in the massed chorus, rather than one of the song’s individually featured solo parts. The voices are layered in the finished recording, so being visible in the group footage does not identify a particular line as his.
No individual lyric or timestamp can be confidently attributed to Aykroyd from the released mix. The contemporary Los Angeles Times account of the session describes 45 artists beginning with the chorus and notes that the singers struggled with the original key before producer Quincy Jones adjusted the arrangement. That establishes the chorus as part of the session, but not which words Aykroyd personally sang.
Why was Dan Aykroyd invited?
According to Aykroyd’s recollection, he and his father were in Los Angeles looking for business managers when they mistakenly walked into a talent manager’s office. The manager asked whether Aykroyd wanted to take part in “We Are the World.” Aykroyd initially questioned whether he belonged among major recording artists, then pointed to his musical work with the Blues Brothers and accepted. This account is summarized in a secondary report citing a 2010 New Hampshire Magazine interview; it should be understood as his recollection, not an independently verified chain of events.
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How the recording came together
“We Are the World” was recorded by USA for Africa as a famine-relief project organized around Harry Belafonte’s call to enlist artists. The session took place at A&M Studios in Hollywood on January 28, 1985, after the American Music Awards, a scheduling choice that made it possible to gather performers already in Los Angeles. The date and context are reported by the Associated Press and in Netflix Tudum’s coverage of the session.
For a fuller account of the making of the song, the official 1985 documentary We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song covers the writing and recording process; its release is listed by Apple Music. Netflix’s The Greatest Night in Pop revisits the session through archival footage and participant accounts.
Quick Recap
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