Cook review: ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’ will take music lovers back

What fun for any music lover, regardless of age or genre preference.

“The Greatest Night in Pop” is so darned much fun you may find yourself watching it again. It’s a good excuse to get your music-aficionado friends and family together so you can bring back memories to older viewers and explain to younger watchers just what made these stars so great.

Director Bao Nguyen captures the excitement, the disorder, and personalities that played into the making of the famous “We Are the World” charity single recorded by a “supergroup” of musicians known as USA for Africa in 1985.

Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson wrote the tune, which was produced by Quincy Jones and Omartian for the “We Are the World” album.

After the success of a similar British initiative in which a group of musicians recorded “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” musician Harry Belafonte decided it would be a good idea to create an American single to address the famine in Africa.

We see first-hand how the writing happened, and Richie guides us through the whole process, from the lyrics to the performance and recording session.

Nearly every A-lister  agreed to be part of the project. Here’s an incomplete list of other folks you’ll see and hear: Ray Charles, Jackson, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Richie, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, and Stevie Wonder. Richie, who always has seemed to be a nice guy, is wonderfully conversational, and Huey Lewis joins with some memories of his own.

I love the way the various egos managed to collaborate while sometimes butting heads. Some were star-struck – Lauper asks for autographs – while others grumbled about how long it took.

This is a kind of musical time capsule that will transport even younger viewers back to the sounds and sights of the 1980s.

3 ½ stars

Running time: One hour and 36 minutes.

Rated: PG-13 for coarse language.

Streaming on Netflix.

Watch the trailer here.

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