In 1986, an incredible foursome of music legends turned a quickly-forgotten tune from the Night Shift soundtrack into a megahit. That’s What Friends Are For not only became the year’s hottest single, but made a huge impact on the national conversation around the AIDS/HIV epidemic.
The song was one of several written in 1981 by married songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer-Sager for Ron Howard‘s comedy Night Shift, starring Michael Keaton. But Rod Stewart‘s recording of the ballad, which played over the film’s end credits, was never released as a single, per Stereogum.
Bacharach and Bayer-Sager kept the song in their back pockets, convinced it could be a hit with the right singers and circumstances. Several years later, when Bacharach played the song for Dionne Warwick, she suggested turning it into a duet with her friend, Stevie Wonder.
While Bacharach and Bayer-Sager were producing the song, their friend Elizabeth Taylor stopped by to see her friends. The Oscar winner was quickly becoming the most vocal advocate in Hollywood for building awareness and resources around the AIDS/HIV epidemic, devastated by losing friends and frustrated by the bigotry towards the gay community, which was hit hardest. Politicians including President Ronald Reagan wouldn’t talk about it and there was little funding for research into how the disease was transmitted and how to treat it. Between 1981 and 1989, over 89,000 Americans died of AIDS, per the CDC.
Warwick told People in 2019, “We lost so many people, especially within our industry — hairdressers, makeup people, cameramen, lighting people, so many in the areas that revolved around my profession.”
Taylor’s visit inspired Bayer-Sager to turn That’s What Friends Are For into a benefit for AIDS/HIV research. Warwick loved the idea and suggested that her friend and R&B great Gladys Knight add her vocals to the song. Then, music exec Clive Davis, who was founder and president of Arista Records, agreed to donate proceeds from the single to AIDS research, and another music industry titan, Elton John, joined the project.
That’s What Friends Are For was released in October 1985 and was perched atop Billboard‘s Hot 100 by January, staying there for four weeks and remaining on the chart for 23 weeks, making it the biggest single of 1986. Warwick, Wonder, Knight, and John’s collaboration raised $3 million for amFAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research. It also got people talking more openly about the disease.
The next year, President Reagan appointed Warwick as an honorary ambassador of health to help with public outreach, per People, and she made the most of that moment.
She told the outlet, “He would not say the word AIDS. He evaded it in every fashion that he could. I didn’t understand why. (At the press conference), I said our president was benevolent enough to make me an Ambassador of Health. And I asked him, ‘President Reagan, what is that disease you’re talking about?’ He had no choice but to say AIDS.”
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