A Love Song to the Troops : Nearly 100 Hollywood Celebrities Show Their Support With ‘Voices That Care’

Chevy Chase had it clear in his mind why he was at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank on Sunday, one of nearly 100 stars recording “Voices That Care,” a song and video of support for allied troops in the Persian Gulf.

“I made sure I was getting the five-grand fee,” the comedian quipped after the celebrity chorus finished recording the gospel-toned power-ballad late Sunday afternoon.

Chase, of course, wasn’t getting a cent, nor were Kevin Costner, Meryl Streep, Wayne Gretzky, Whoopi Goldberg nor anyone, from the show business and sports stars to the technicians getting it all on tape.

The record and video are expected to be ready for airing in about three weeks. The video is being released by Propaganda Films; the recording by Giant Records.

Proceeds will go to the groups supporting the troops and their families.

Bob Hope’s perennial cavalcades notwithstanding, you have to go back to World War II to find the level of Hollywood support for United States troops overseas that was expressed Sunday.

Among the colorful scenes:

* Psychedelic-era artist Peter Max (who designed the “Voices” yellow-ribbon-adorned heart logo) jokingly sparring with former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson.

* Woodstock veteran Stephen Stills sharing a stage with hymn-humming Dodger Orel Hershiser.

* Helen Reddy earnestly singing her heart out next to a guy in a Bugs Bunny costume--all while families of POWs and MIAs from Camp Pendleton looked on.

As such it was the antithesis to the Vietnam-era war protests. Asked about his own past protest activities, Chase turned quite serious.

“It would be silly to talk about the last war in the context of what we’re doing today,” he said. “I feel ashamed of how we treated our returning soldiers last time and this is in some measure reparation for that. I didn’t support that war, but regardless of how I feel about this one, I want the people over there to know we care about them.”

That was the party line of the day.

David Foster, the producer and co-writer of “Voices,” said that was by design,

“We all have private (political) feelings, but I’m keeping mine to myself,” he said. “This is not the platform for it.”

The song’s lyrics, written by Foster’s fiancee Linda Thompson Jenner, make that clear. A sample:

I’m not here to justify the cause,

Or to count up all the loss . . .

That’s all been done before.

I just can’t let you feel alone,

When there’s so much love at home

We’re sending out to you.

The sentiment was echoed by participants ranging from veteran liberal activist Danny Goldberg (who manages Foster, as well as Lenny Kravitz, who oversaw the recent update of John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”) to singer Debbie Gibson, who was barely an infant during the Vietnam years.

“There are people I went to school with that are now in Saudi Arabia,” said Long Island native Gibson, wearing a U.S. flag-adorned T-shirt, during a break in the recording. “They print their letters in our local paper.”

Said ‘70s teen idol David Cassidy: “I share, as all of us do, a concern in a nonpolitical way, that the soldiers all come back safely and that they know they have our support.”

Security was tight at the studio, yet there was a matter-of-fact quality to the proceedings, with the dewy-eyed momentousness of the famous 1985 “We Are the World” recording session replaced by the standard-issue Hollywood hugs and glad-handing.

Only Henry Winkler, toting a camcorder, seemed impressed enough to want to preserve the event for private posterity.

Still, this was all about star-power--the modern equivalent of a ‘40s USO extravaganza, an unadulterated Hollywood spectacle.

“The fact that this is a Hollywood extravaganza is the whole point,” said “L.A. Law” star Michael Tucker, as he arrived Sunday morning. “It’s to show the broadest base of support, to get as many people of different political perspectives out. We’re all behind the boys and women and men on the front lines. Unfortunately, they’re the ones that have to do the fighting for us old folks here at home.”