Charity Super Groups

Charity super groups are typically short-lived collaboration efforts of all-star musicians who have already experienced high levels of success in other bands or on their own coming together to raise money through their work. Charity super groups generally do not release full length albums, but rather individual songs for specific causes geared to raise money and awareness through record sales and radio airplay.

These super groups became prominent in the 80s along with benefit concerts, but waned during the 90s. But, as with benefit concerts, charity super group recordings have seen a rise in recent years.

Most Notable Charity Super Croups

• Band Aid was a British and Irish charity supergroup, founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the record "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market. The single surpassed the hopes of the producers to become the Christmas number one on that release.

  Prominent Members: Phil Collins, George Michael, Bono, Freddie Mercury, Sting, David Bowie, Boy George, Paul Young

• USA for Africa was the name under which forty-five predominantly U.S. artistsrecorded the hit single "We Are the World" in 1985. The song was a US and UK Number One for the collective in April of that year. The considerable profits from the enterprise went to the USA for Africa Foundation, which used them for the relief of famine and disease in Africa and specifically to 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia; critics, however, claim that this money went directly to the (often military) governments of the affected countries rather than the people.
  www.usaforafrica.org

  Prominent Members: Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Dan Aykroyd, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Rogers

• Dionne and Friends is a one-off collaboration featuring Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder released the charity single “That’s What Friends are For” in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1985, it was recorded as a benefit for American Foundation for AIDS Research, and raised over three million dollars for that cause. The tune peaked at #1 for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1986 and became Billboard's number one single of 1986.
  www.amfar.org/

  Prominent Members: Dionne Warwick, Gladys Night, Elton John, Stevie Wonder