Before it began, Wonder told the audience at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. At the end of the two-hour telecast, which was titled “An All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.,” all those performers - along with Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Quincy Jones, Eddie Murphy, Gregory Hines, and others - gathered onstage with Wonder to sing “Happy Birthday,” his jubilant tribute to King. Whitney Houston, energized and vocally stirring, bounded onstage to join Ashford and Simpson for “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”Įven with all that star power, the night belonged to Stevie Wonder. Bob Dylan and his band glided through a gently pulsing, almost R&B take on “I Shall Be Released,” and Dylan joined Peter, Paul and Mary for “Blowin’ in the Wind” - remarkably, the first time all four had ever sung that song together onstage. By network broadcasting standards, the night of January 20th, 1986, had more than its share of rarely-seen-on-TV highlights.
