Musicians, comedians, athletes, ready to sing for charity

Toronto Globe and Mail
February 7, 1985

JONI MITCHELL, Neil Young, Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Paul Anka, Gordon Lightfoot and Paul Schafer, bandleader for the Late Night With David Letterman TV show, are among dozens of Canadian musicians who have confirmed they will meet in a downtown Toronto studio Sunday to record a song for Ethiopian famine relief, a spokesman for the Bruce Allan Agency said yesterday.

Marlene Palmer said the list is being updated daily, and members of the music industry across the country are being recruited to help out.

Wayne Gretzky is organizing a group of National Hockey League all-stars to record one chorus of the song, entitled Tears Are Not Enough. The song was written by Adams and collaborator jam Vallance, who won four Juno awards in December. Vallance's girlfriend, Rachel Paiement, a founding member of the group, Cano, will provide one verse in French. The music was written by the veteran songwriter, session musician and producer David Foster, who currently lives in Vancouver, and who is nominated for six Grammy awards this year.

The project was initiated last week when producer Quincy Jones - who is overseeing an American recording of the song We Are The World, by rock stars including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and Bob Dylan - called Foster in Vancouver and asked him if he thought he could coordinate a similar Canadian project.

Foster called Allen (manager of Loverboy and Adams) and Allen began working on the deal. The first organizational meeting took place Monday. Allen contacted Air Canada officials, who agreed to pick up the cost of flying the performers to Toronto.

As well as coordinating the deal, the Bruce Allen agency will foot the bill for the long-distance phone calls around the continent.

The vocals will be recorded at a Toronto studio, but the location is being kept secret for security reasons, and a video will be filmed by Concert Productions International in conjunction with Global Television. The music for the song will be recorded in Vancouver.

Other well-known performers who will sing along include country singer Carroll Baker, Salome Bey, Veronique Beliveau, Liona Boyd, comedian John Candy, Robert Charlebois, Tom Cochrane of Red Rider, Burton Cummings, Dalbello, Claude Dubois, The Good Brothers, Corey Hart, Ronnie Hawkins, Dan Hill, Mark Holmes of Platinum Blonde, Tommy Hunter, Paul Hyde of The Payolas, Martha Johnson of Martha and The Muffins, Geddy Lee of Rush, Murray McLauchlan, Kim Mitchell, Aldo Nova, actress Catherine O'Hara, Carole Pope of Rough Trade, Mike Reno of Loverboy, Lorraine Segato of The Parachute Club, Graham Shaw, Jane Siberry, Ian Thomas and Zappacosta.

CBS Records will distribute the single in Canada, and the Canadian recording may be included on a U.S. album.

CBS has already sold more than 160,000 copies of the British-produced Band-Aid project, Do They Know It's Christmas?, recorded by more than 40 English pop stars.