On January 1, 1986, the album "Hear 'n Aid", which included a collaboration of 40 Hard Rock and Metal artists, was released.
It is a charity album designed to be a response from Metal artists to gestures made by British and later US artists, to help victims of the famine in Africa.
It all started with the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Written by "Boomtown Rats" lead singer Bob Geldof and composed by "Ultravox" lead singer Midge Ure in 1984, to raise funds to help victims of famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof and Ure, composed the song after Geldof saw a documentary on the BBC channel, about the severe famine that befell Ethiopia. Geldof called on more British artists to join the charity initiative and managed to put together the "Band "Aid" whose members numbered the best British and Irish artists, who performed the song which was released on December 3, 1984, and also served as the theme song for the 1985 "Live Aid" shows.
The American response was not long in coming. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote the song "We Are the World", which was recorded by the band "USA for Africa", composed of the best artists from the USA and Canada, for the victims of the famine in "Ethiopia". The song was released in March 1985, sold over 20 million copies worldwide, and became the seventh best-selling song of all time, as well as the third best-selling song of all time in the "United States".
The Metal artists could not remain indifferent in the face of the two gestures mentioned above. Singer Ronnie James Dio co-wrote the song "Stars" with bassist Jimmy Bain and guitarist Vivian Campbell, who were then part of "Dio", aiming to raise money to help famine victims in Africa.
The song was recorded on May 20-21, 1985 by 40 famous Hard Rock and Metal artists, including: Vinny Appice, Neal Schon, Blackie Lawless, Ted Nugent, Yngwie Malmsteen, Tommy Aldridge, Rob Halford, Kevin DuBrow, Eric Bloom, Geoff Tate, Don Dokken, Vivian Campbell, Buck Dharma, Neal Schon, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and more.
Other artists who failed to reach the recordings, contributed songs to the tribute album including: "Accept", "Motörhead", "Rush", "Kiss" and more.