Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige Join Mock "30 Rock" Choir

Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, the Beastie Boys, Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Mary J. Blige, Cyndi Lauper and more stars came together last night in a "We Are The World"-like superchorus for a good cause... 30 Rock. Singing for "Kidney Now," a kinda-legit group Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) assembles to find his long-lost father (Alan Alda) a donor organ, the all-star collective — which also featured Norah Jones, Moby, Sara Bareilles and Steve Earle — performed a hilarious send-up of benefit songs on the season finale of Tina Fey's NBC comedy. "He Needs a Kidney" was actually written by the show's music supervisor, Jeff Richmond, and is up for sale on iTunes — 100 percent of the proceeds from downloads will go to the National Kidney Foundation.

"Listen, when someone starts talking in a song, you know it's serious," Costello deadpans mid-song. While we enjoyed the Beasties and Talib Kweli's out-of-nowhere cameos along with the visual of Costello and Clay Aiken sharing a mic, the clear highlight of the video belongs to McDonald, who says, "Milton Green needs a kidney just like I need this beard. You don't want to know what's under here."

You have to give credit to 30 Rock: They somehow collected a better ensemble than Jimmy Kimmel mustered for his charity single "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck," which featured Joan Jett, Perry Farrell, Macy Gray, Pete Wentz and Harrison Ford. Rock Daily has collected the best all-star superchoruses, from "We Are The World" to "Affleck," for your YouTubing pleasure, below.

"I'm Fucking Ben Affleck"

USA For Africa - "We Are the World"

Artists United Against Apartheid - "Sun City"
No Nukes - "For What It's Worth

Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas"

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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