“Sun City” by Artists United Against Apartheid

"Sun City" was 1985's loudest act of refusal. Steven Van Zandt, credited here as Little Steven, wrote it and produced it with Arthur Baker, and the all-star collective Artists United Against Apartheid lined up behind it to condemn South Africa's apartheid regime, every one of them vowing never to play the Sun City resort. Van Zandt first saw parallels between the resort and the plight of Native Americans; journalist Danny Schechter of ABC's 20/20 pushed for a different kind of "We Are the World", about change rather than charity.

The cast is staggering: Bono, Jackson Browne, Pat Benatar, George Clinton, Jimmy Cliff, Rubén Blades and Afrika Bambaataa on vocals, Miles Davis on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Pete Townshend on guitar, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey on drums, and Jam Master Jay on the turntables, mashing rock, hip-hop, funk and jazz into one furious groove.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.