Songoftheday 1/18/23 - Mother mother there's too many of you crying, brother, brother, brother there's far too many of you dying...

 

 

"What's Going On" - Artists Against AIDS

from the single (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song brings back a phenomenon that hasn't really been seen since the 1980s in America - the star-studded charity single. That decade had brought us Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" and USA For Africa's "We Are The World", Artists Against Apartheid's "Sun City", and the like. The 90s did have a one-off in that vein with the success of "Voices That Care" in 1991 when the War in Iraq (aka "Desert Storm") was going on.  

In 2001, the group Artists Against AIDS Worldwide, founded by Leigh Blake, who had been with the Red Hot Organization that produced the series of various artist cover collections that would raise money to fight the disease that killed millions. Bono from U2 and producer rapper Jermaine Dupri were brought on board to executive produce the single, which attracted a lot of A-list artists to participate in the cover of the late Marvin Gaye's classic song "What's Going On". From the pop side of the house we had Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera as well as the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. From the rock world there was Bono himself (of course) along with Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, and Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction. On the R&B tip was T-Boz and Chili from TLC, Usher, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys, and Mary J. Blige, as well as rappers P. Diddy, Nelly, Lil' Kim, and Nas. They even had Marvin's daughter Nona Gaye on the record. What that meant is everyone mostly got a fleeting line or two, with the main mix featuring the rappers on more expansive original roles. There was a rock mix, a pop mix, and even a club remix done from Junior Vasquez, so everyone had a shot. The "pop" mix that was in the video had the solo lines done in order by Jagged Edge, Pat Monahan of Train, Usher, Gaye, Bono, Aguilera, Spears, T-Boz & Chili, Beyonce & Destiny's Child, Monica, Furtado (with the long rap break), Stipe, Keys, and JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake from NSYNC.

The single was recorded on the first week of September in 2001, intending to be solely a fundraiser for AIDS services in Africa. However after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, some of the money was funneled off for the Red Cross. The CD single was released at the end of October in 2001, and it sold quite well - not "We Are The World" numbers, but enough to make the top-40, and even radio gave it some play. Was it essential as a piece of music? Of course not, but that wasn't the point, it was the spectacle of having all those people on the same record (albeit some on different mixes). The music video for the single, using the "pop" mix, had the featured artists wrapped around the eyes in black ribbon that they removed revealing different "code words" for all kinds of issues - but the first one "bisexual" certainly caught the eye. There was also "gay" and "conservative" and "radical" and "socialist" and "Jew" and Christian" among others. A pretty powerful statement...

The Artists Against AIDS collective's "What's Going On" made the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 for a month in October of 2001, while getting to #76 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song peaked at #24 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart and the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Denmark (#2), Italy (#5), Belgium (#5 Wallonia/#18 Flanders), the United Kingdom (#6), and Ireland (#8), and hit the top-40 in Switerland (#16), New Zealand (#18), Sweden (#19), the Netherlands (#26), Germany (#35), and Australia (#38).

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This wasn't the first time that "What's Going On" was used to raise money as a one-off single. In 1989, the Live Aid organization released a cover featuring British pop stars to benefit the victim of the earthquake in Armenia the year before. As a record, this seemless mix of sophisti-pop and English soul is my favorite of them...

In 1994, another remake was done to raise money for the victims of the horrible genocide in Rwanda; this one was a minor hit in the UK at #70, but made money as well being on the Now That's What I Call Music series...

Here's the "original Dupri mix" that had a slightly different lineup with more rap breaks and a different video that included clips of 9/11 with the recording of the track. Nas has the best of them...

Lastly, a bunch of the artists came on stage to perform it for the Billboard Music Awards...

Up tomorrow: R&B star has a case.