When looking back at the year 1985 musically, it was the year that artists gave back.
Sir Bob Geldof got the ball rolling helping those starving in desert-laden Ethiopia with the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which spun off USA For Africa's monster No. 1 smash in this country, "We Are The World," as well as other lesser-known spinoff songs. And on Saturday, July 13, 1985, Geldof orchestrated a two-venue concert in London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium that brought together the biggest stars of a couple of generations called Live Aid, where all the monies made would continue to help those starving in the African country.
Later on, Little Steven aka Steven Van Zandt organized the Artists United Against Apartheid on the song "Sun City," a Top 40 smash single in late December whose single purpose was to send a message to the apartheid-led government of South Africa, saying they wouldn't play the big-time resort that discriminated against those of color.
In the late summer of 1985, Dionne Warwick, whose biggest smash hits came in the 1960s with songs like "Walk On By," "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" and "Theme From 'The Valley Of The Dolls'," was recording tracks for an upcoming album. One of the songs she was working on was called "That's What Friends Are For," a song first recorded in 1982 by Rod Stewart, whose version was used in the movie "Night Shift" that starred Henry Winkler, Shelly Long and Michael Keaton. The song was co-written by the then-husband-and-wife duo of Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager.
Bacharach, whose memorable songs he co-wrote with Hal David paved the way for Warwick's career, was having a conversation with legendary actress and activist Elizabeth Taylor. He told her Warwick was recording the song that he was co-producing with his wife. Taylor remembered the Stewart version from "Night Shift" and thought it'd be a great song to help her cause. In 1984, she organized the first AIDS fundraiser, AIDS Project Los Angeles. Along with Dr. Michael Gottlieb and Dr. Mathilde Krim, Taylor founded amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research and continued to stay busy helping with more AIDS-related events, raising money to fight what would be the scourge disease of the time.
But it was before an AIDS-related event in that summer of '85 in Los Angeles that she found out one of her own closest friends was seeing the end of the line due to the virus that caused the disease. Legendar actor Rock Hudson was dying and it was revealed in the last couple of months before his passing that he had this disease.
Suddenly, AIDS had a famous face. Distraught, Taylor did everything to console her close friend and try everything she could to raise money to fight the disease, even if it wasn't going to keep her friend alive. Hudson died from complications due to AIDS on October 2, 1985, a month and a half before his 60th birthday.
Before his passing, though, Taylor saw an opportunity to do good while talking with Bacharach. She floated the idea of "That's What Friends Are For" as a fundraiser and Bacharach brought the idea back to Warwick. Her response was positive. That's when it was decided that a few "friends" were needed to make the song special. Warwick reached out to three artists she not only had known for years, but were also charitable as well: Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight. Warwick worked alongside Wonder on "We Are The World," while Wonder played harmonica for John on his smash 1984 hit "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" and Wonder and Knight knew each other for years as Motown Records artists.
John played the piano and Wonder played the harmonica on the song that sounds melancholy, but really is a positive ode to the ideal of friendship and staying alongside one another through the best and worst of times. Released in mid-fall 1985, the song climbed the Hot 100 until it debuted in the Top 40 on November 23, 1985, at No. 39. The song continued to climb until reaching the Top 10 on December 21, when it jumped from No. 14 to No. 8.
Three weeks later, the song had reached No. 3 and on the week of January 18, 1986, "That's What Friends Are For" hit No. 1 and would spend four weeks at the top. By the end of 1986, the song would become the No. 1 song of the year and the following winter, would win the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for Bacharach and Bayer-Sager. And when it was all said and done, the song Taylor suggested should be a benefit to AIDS awareness raised $3 million for amfAR. It was during that week that it hit No. 1 -- January 15, 1986 to be exact -- that the song was certified gold for sales of 1 million copies.
Getting the four superstars together to perform the song, though, was never easy. They did it a couple of times live, the last time being 1988. Then at a 25th anniversary amfAR gala in New York on February 10, 2011, Warwick, John, Knight and Wonder reunited to do the song. It was one of the last things done in Taylor's honor. On March 23, 2011, Taylor died from symptoms related to heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, 24 days after her 79th birthday. It was discovered that while alive, Taylor raised $270 million for AIDS research alone for amfAR.
"That's What Friends Are For" became an iconic part of the 1980s, but for different reasons, mostly for the cause it was helping to raise awareness for.
Thanks to Elizabeth Taylor. As well as some "friends" who were giving back.
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