In 1985, Redlener joined the board of USA for Africa as the organization’s medical director and director of grants, where he met Paul Simon.
USA for Africa also held a benefit event, Hands Across America, in which approximately seven million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States.
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In 1985, Dr. Redlener joined the board of USA for Africa as the organization’s medical director and director of grants, where he met Paul Simon.
After playing it, he commented that the song would be ideal for use as a multiple-artist benefit project (similar to Band Aid's Feed the World, or USA for Africa's We Are the World tracks).