‘Sun City’: the greatest charity single

One of the things that brings me extreme joy in this world is a good charity single.
I think they are fantastic on so many levels.

They bring talented stars of all different styles together and have to perform together on one song. When they’re good, they’re great, and when they’re bad, they’re hilarious — and all for great causes.

In America, the 1985 single “We Are the World” is the gold standard for such songs. Written by the late, great Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie and produced by Quincy Jones, this song helped raise $63 million for a famine effected Africa.

The song is a classic and features great performances by Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper and countless others, but it still can’t hold a candle to Artists United Against Apartheid’s “Sun City.”

Released about five months after “We Are the World,” this song takes the cake as the coolest

charity single ever. It was put together by former E-Street guitarist “Little” Steven Van Zandt to protest the South African apartheid. The song wasn’t about helping, it was about fighting. It had balls, and they come across on the song.

Whereas WATW begins with a delightful keyboard and Lionel Ritchie’s smooth voice, “Sun City” begins with a gunshot, hard percussion, crazy background vocals and a blistering trumpet solo by Miles Davis.

It then goes in to a rap verse kicked off by Run DMC, followed by Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Kool Herc and Melle Mel.

Hip-Hop had not yet reached its place in American culture. To start a charity pop single off with a jazz solo and follow it with hip-hop, a music genre that had yet to earn its place in American culture, shows that Van Zandt was breaking all the rules and getting great results.

The next verse is performed by the odd match of former Temptations singers David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks singing with rockers Pat Benetar and Bruce Springsteen.
WATW had odd musical couples such as Dionne Warwick and Willie Nelson, Tina Turner and Billie Joel, and Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen, but they didn’t have punk legend Joey Ramone trading off lines with funk legend George Clinton.

“Sun City” just throws it all together, and it comes out gold; all styles, all artists, all passion. 

WATW was far too over-produced, and although the singers were different, the music and the vocals fell short. In “Sun City” we hear thundering drums played by Ringo Starr and his son, lively saxophone by Clarence Clemmons, bass pops and guitar fills.

It sounds live, energetic and highly danceable. The vocals are performed with much more freedom, intensity and versatility. Lou Reed’s monotone delivery and Bono’s passionate yell are both showcased equally, and Bob Dylan’s horrendous yodel is matched with Jackson Browne’s sly vocal delivery. 

The chorus is on fire. On WATW everyone sang as one big voice in unity, but here it sounds as if a bunch of great singers are having a party. Everyone is singing their heart out in their own way, using their own ad-libs, having fun and bringing something new to each line. It is a wall of sound hitting you at every moment in the best possible way.

Now even though they don’t have the singing talents that Dan Aykroyd brought to WATW, the sheer amount and range of people on the song ensures that there’s something for everyone: Joey Ramone, Lou Reed and Stiv Bators for the punks. The Fat Boys, Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow and Afrika Bambaataa for the hip hop fans. Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Ray Barretto for the jazz fans. Pete Townsend, Ronnie Wood, Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards for the classic rock fans. Jimmy Cliff and Big Youth for the reggae fans. And Hall & Oates for people who just love great music.

It never went on to the type of ridiculous success achieved by WATW, and it has largely been forgotten by history, but I promise you it is the best charity single of the 1980s, and possibly of all time. It has everything you’d ever want to hear in one five minute and 45 second song.

Any time you have artists as diverse as Gil-Scott Heron, Motley Crue and Bonnie Raitt coming together on one song, you know it’s going to be great.