I have just watched the Haiti USA remake of "We Are The World", which is for a good cause so I won't dwell on the "oh my word, is this really happening" rap, or some of the stranger solo contributions, or Wyclef, the moment when you wonder what Fergie thought of Celine Dion singing over her, the Autotune bits, how you literally can't go a day without seeing Pink somewhere, or how the ballyhooed digital inclusion of Michael Jackson in the new group shot must have been taking longer to pull off than this version could wait for. Ultimately, if Quincy "Thriller" Jones and Lionel "All Night Long" Richie have a hand in a track then I must bow to their judgement. It's a testament to the song itself that it can survive even T Pain and Josh Grobin.

Toward the end of the video I was invited by an onscreen graphic to "join the chorus" and contribute my own version of "We Are The World" as a video response, but before I assembled my own cast of non-celebrity vocalists I thought it prudent to to size up the competition. A quick search revealed, sadly, that I would never be able to assemble a cast to equal the likes of Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, or Drew Barrymore, who have all appeared on cover versions of this anthemic single, so I will just have to "join the chorus" at a later date when I can secure a worthy line-up.

If you're thinking of joining the chorus to "We Are The World" you may want to consider these...



USA for Haiti

Lionel Richie says is all to camera in the video postscript to this clip... "Wow." You'd be hard pressed to notice, but Academy Award winning director Paul "Crash" Haggis made this. If you want to "join the chorus" to "We Are The World", respond to this...






Saturday Night Live

SNL is notoriously hit and miss, and this parody was no different, but it has a great premise, and Julia Louise Dreyfus, and Mr. T.






"Children of the World"

The 'trailer-man' vocal introduction to the deeply monotonous "Children of the World" cover is, in hindsight, the best bit, so I won't mention the Allyssa Milano / Drew Barrymore / Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson cameos (I only spotted Milano), or the old-school Coca-Cola commercial style shots of over 1400 children running over a hill in LA's Griffith Park wearing "Children of the World" sweaters, or the nauseating solo ending. Michael Jackson's nieces, Brittny and Valencia Jackson, were somewhere amongst the fifty children selected for the studio on May 25th, 1985, in Westlake Studios in Hollwood, singing their little hearts out. See if you can spot them. They're the ones in the peacock feather masks....





"Various Taiwan Artists"

It would appear that American celebrities do not in fact constitute the whole world, as this intriguing find on Youtube would seem to prove. I have already started to "join the chorus" by learning this version phonetically. It's slavishly respectful to the American version but the final shots of somebody writing something thoughtfully are a touching addition...






Japanese Game Show

Who else but the Japanese would think of assembling real Japanese impersonators of the American stars of of the original "We Are The World"? Their Cyndi Lauper and Ray Charles are surprisingly good, but only after seeing their Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson...