The Retroscope: 5 April

5 April 1985: At 3:50 PM GMT, over 5000 radio stations worldwide aired the charity single by USA for Africa “We Are The World”. The track was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian. It was intended to be written by Jackson, Richie and Wonder, however, Stevie Wonder had limited time to work on the project and Jackson and Richie proceeded to write the track. Its 20 million sales makes it one of the fewer than 30 all time singles to have sold 10 million copies. “We Are The World” became the first ever single to be certified multi-platinum and received a Quadruple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.