That's What Friends Are For
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"That's What Friends Are For" is a 1982 song written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager and introduced by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of the film Night Shift.
The song is far better known for its cover version by Dionne Warwick and Friends, a one-off collaboration featuring Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder released as a charity single in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1985, 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. In 1988, the Washington Post wrote: So working against AIDS, especially after years of raising money for work on many blood-related diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, seemed the right thing to do. "You have to be granite not to want to help people with AIDS, because the devastation that it causes is so painful to see. I was so hurt to see my friend die with such agony," Warwick remembers. "I am tired of hurting and it does hurt."
The Dionne and Friends version of the song won the performers the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, as well as Song of the Year for its writers, Bacharach and Bayer Sager. It also was ranked by Billboard magazine as the most popular song of 1986.[1][2]
[edit] Other versions
Other recordings are Shirley Bassey (1991), Helen Reddy (for The Burt Bacharach Album: Broadway Sings the Best of Burt Bacharach in 1998), and the Snowcone Baritones, a barbershop quartet group at Rye Country Day School.
In the UK on the 16th December 2006, the major television network ITV aired the final of that year's series of The X-Factor, where all hopeful contestents who made it to the aired episodes performed this song live to an audience of several million.
In 2007 on It Takes Two in Australia, All Saints' Jolene Anderson and her partner David Campbell sang this song and were TV viewer's favorite couple and they won the competition.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1986
- ^ Billboard, December 27, 1986
[edit] External links
- "That's What Friends Are For" music video with lyrics (Dionne Warwick & friends)
- "The Dionne Warwick Channel" -YouTube site containing over 100 Dionne Warwick tunes with rare photos and information on each tune, including those produced by Burt Bacharach
| Preceded by "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single January 18, 1986- February 8, 1986 |
Succeeded by "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston |
| Preceded by "Careless Whisper" by Wham! featuring George Michael |
Billboard Hot 100 Number one single of the year 1986 |
Succeeded by "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles |
| Preceded by "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie |
Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number one single January 25 - February 8, 1986 |
Succeeded by "Do Me, Baby" by Meli'sa Morgan |
| Preceded by "A Good Heart" by Feargal Sharkey |
Australian ARIA Singles Chart number-one single March 3, 1986 |
Succeeded by "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean |
