It’s hard to imagine in this age of splintered attention and media overload, but on July 13, 1985 nearly forty percent of the entire world’s population was glued to their screen watching a singular event.<\/p>\n
It kicked off in London and continued in Philadelphia, two stages hosting virtually every major living rock artist, and quite a few minor ones too.<\/p>\n
Live Aid went down in history as arguably the greatest concert event ever staged, and it started at Wembley Stadium with a band called Status Quo, a popular British band that hadn’t charted in America since 1968.<\/p>\n
And yet the BBC insisted that the band open the show, which it planned to broadcast globally in its entirety.<\/p>\n
Why kick off with a band unknown to much of its audience? Because of one specific song–a song that wasn’t even their own.<\/p>\n
When John Fogerty recorded “Rockin’ All Over the World,” he was at a career low point. Credence Clearwater Revival had disbanded, and his first solo album flopped.<\/p>\n
His self-titled follow-up fared better. “Rockin’ All Over the World” was the album’s lead single, and it notched a respectable #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1975.<\/p>\n