Stevie Wonder Taught Bob Dylan How to Sing His “We Are the World” Verse In An Incredible Scene From Netflix’s ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’ Doc

If you watch The Greatest Night in Pop on Netflix—a new documentary about the recording of the 1985 charity single “We Are the World”—you’ll likely notice that folk icon Bob Dylan is not having a good time.

Directed Bao Nguyen (Be Water) and produced by Lionel Richie, the doc features archival footage of an all-night recording session, featuring 40 or so of some of the biggest names in music all in one room, all singing in unison. But while some of these superstars are happy to belt out the inspiring tune written by Richie and Michael Jackson, Dylan appears distinctly uncomfortable. Each time the camera finds him, he looks lost and confused. Unlike the other performers, he never smiles. He half-heartedly mouths along to the lyrics that he doesn’t seem to know.

It all comes to a head when Dylan is called up to the mic to sing his solo verse. As one of the engineers from the booth recalled, “[Dylan] is a legendary, iconic symbol to Americans and the world, so we were expecting something amazing to happen.”

Instead of doing something amazing, Dylan approached the mic and weakly mumbled out his verse. You can barely even hear him. In a talking head interview, camera operator Ken Woo observes that Dylan seemed “a little confused, because it just didn’t seem like Bob was understanding how he was supposed to sing. Is he supposed to make it more like this chorus or more like Bob Dylan?”

Producer Quincy Jones can be heard offering Dylan insincere praise, as everyone tries to figure out what to do. Eventually, renowned pianist, singer, and songwriter Stevie Wonder steps in to save the day. As Rolling Stone journalist David Breskin, who was in the room that night, explains, “The secret agent to help him get comfortable was Stevie Wonder. Stevie is an insanely great mimic. Stevie sang it ventriloquially in Dylan’s voice.”

On the tape, you see Lionel Richie lead Stevie Wonder to the piano. Stevie promptly belts out the voice, in a Bob Dylan voice, like it’s nothing. Stevie Wonder’s Bob Dylan impression sounds better than Dylan himself. As Bruce Springsteen observes, “Stevie’s one of those guys, he can sing the phonebook. Anytime you’re around him, you’re around a genius.”

It was the boost of confidence and the guidance that Dylan needed. The singer-songwriter finally cracks a smile, and Jones cleared the room of all performers except Dylan on vocals and Stevie Wonder on the piano. Finally, Dylan delivers his verse at full volume, and Jones gets a usable take.

“That wasn’t any good,” Dylan says sheepishly after he’s finally able to belt out his verse.

But Jones insists, “I’m telling you, we got it. That was fantastic.”

“If you say so,” Dylan says.

But now, at least, he’s smiling. He accepts a hug from Jones and Richie, and a compliment from Bruce Springsteen, who tells him he did a nice job. Watching the footage now, you see Dylan’s mood lift in real-time. All it took was a little of that Stevie Wonder magic.