Harry Belafonte remembers seeing a television film of an Australian doctor working in Ethiopia, caring for a starving child and surrounded by thousands of others. The doctor said, "I do what I can and take it one at a time." Harry Belafonte thought, "We could also take it one at a time," and he picked up the phone.
Just over a month later, on the night of Jan. 28, 45 pop stars got together in a Los Angeles studio to record a simple anthem of compassion. The song, We Are the World, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, featured, besides...