This first report on The biggest pop night comes from our team following its premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. We’ll update this piece when there’s more information about the film’s release.
Logline
On January 28, 1985, more than 40 of the United States’ most famous musicians, from Michael Jackson and Diana Ross to Paul Simon and Billy Joel, met in secret to record a charity song. ‘We Are the World’ was intended as a fundraiser for famine relief in Africa. The biggest pop nighta documentary coming soon to Netflix is about how that song was recorded in just one night.
Longer line
‘We Are the World’ is one of the best-selling and most popular singles of all time, featuring perhaps the most star-studded line-up ever recorded together. Bao Nguyen’s film runs from the making of the song, from the original idea to the writing, to getting talent on board and the recording itself.
Nguyen presents all this using archival footage from when the recording session was first filmed, as well as talk-y interviews with some of the musicians involved, including Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and Kenny Loggins.
What is The Greatest Night in Pop trying to do?
In addition to documenting one of the most important moments in 20th-century pop culture, The biggest pop night also tries to convey the sheer star power that came together at A&M Studios that night in 1985. It was a who’s who of the most famous musicians in the world, which meant there was both a clash of egos and an ease that came from shared fame: these superstars were in the only room in the world where most of the people around them truly understood what life was like at that level of celebrity.
Does The Greatest Night in Pop live up to its premise?
The biggest pop night is looking for a more relaxed and festive version of the hectic energy that director DA Pennebaker captured Original cast album: Company, his film adaptation of that album’s late-night recording session. Usually, that’s where Nguyen gets it. His doc is light-hearted and fun, and while it does a good job of telling the night, thanks in large part to Richie’s fantastic narration, it mostly has the good sense to shy away from the personalities that were actually in the room. This approach holds it back from being a truly great documentary: it rarely adds much context to the footage we see beyond backstory, and it pointedly avoids any controversy or criticism of even the film’s toughest participants. But the ‘footage-forward’ approach makes the whole thing extremely fun to watch.
Seeing Bob Dylan looking awkward in a sea of famous faces, Stevie Wonder joking with Ray Charles, or Huey Lewis nervously working out a harmony is as unguarded as most of these stars have ever appeared on film. It is a fascinating document. And the way that every second of that footage is still compelling almost forty years later is a testament to the raw, all-encompassing, absolutely magnetic star power that everyone in that room has.
Image: Netflix
The quote that says it all
As the film itself points out, the most important aspect of the entire evening was the moment when producer Quincy Jones placed a sign in the recording studio that read, “Check your ego at the door.” That’s what makes The biggest pop night feel special: it lets us into the room where all-time great musicians felt like they were among friends and peers.
Most memorable moment
There are some incredible moments, like Waylon Jennings walking out of the recording studio muttering, “There was never a good old boy singing in Swahili,” or Cyndi Lauper realizing her huge chains were making so much noise that the microphones were picking up she says next to her voice. But if anything from this movie becomes a meme, it’s Bob Dylan’s awkward grimace, right in the middle of the music world’s most famous faces, as he desperately tries to figure out how to sing in unison with them. It’s incredible, and as Bob Dylan as anything can be.
Is The Greatest Night in Pop any good?
Absolute. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of documentary classics and falls short in understanding the tortured circumstances and frustrated production of Original cast album: Companyor the sheer musical excellence of Monterey doll. But there’s something special about seeing these stars mingle that makes this film a fascinating document about fame and the people behind it.
When can we see it?
The biggest pop night will be released on Netflix on January 29.