10 Perfect Hit Songs That Are Insanely Long

10. We Are the World - USA For Africa

For as much as Live Aid has been dogged on in the past, there was at least a good idea at the heart of it all. Despite the millions of punks bashing it for being a bunch of celebrities being self absorbed with themselves and trying to boost their own sales figures, you could tell that they really were coming together to try and help the world. So when you have that many people spread out over a few days, how do you translate that kind of energy to a single?

Operating almost concurrently with Live Aid, USA for Africa gave us We Are the World, which brought together every single living legend you could imagine at the time. Though the actual hook of the song is pretty basic, that gives every single vocalist room to flex their chops, going from the smooth sounds of Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie to Steve Perry from Journey to bringing in Bob Dylan to kind of speak-sing his way through his own separate verse.

In between some of the more iconic people though, you also have Dan Akroyd in the mix as well. Though this was assumed to just be a representation of the Blues Brothers, Akroyd has said that he had no intention of being a part of things, just walking into the wrong studio one day and setting up shop behind the rest of the living legends. The premise of the song and even the structure may be a little bit too basic, but there’s a fine line between coming off as trite and becoming universal.