Lionel Richie has endless love for this left-out music legend.
The “All Night Long” crooner revealed Friday that he and several celebrities made the mistake of not asking Madonna as well as Cyndi Lauper to appear on the iconic track “We Are the World” during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“You guys talk about Cyndi Lauper and Madonna,” Kimmel, 56, said referring to Richie’s new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night In Pop,” which tells the story of the song’s creation.
“We know Cyndi Lauper was in this thing,” Kimmel continues. “Was it like who should we invite Cyndi Lauper or Madonna?”
“Why did it have to be Cyndi Lauper or Madonna,” Kimmel continued to press.
“It’s probably one of the is probably one of the most interesting questions in the world,” Richie, 74, responded. “Because we had only half a line to sing.”
“Let me say this now by half a line,” Richie reiterated. “So we had to have voices that people knew right away.”
“And so for whatever reason, and by the way, we didn’t know whether Cyndi was coming,” added Richie.
According to the pop star, he approached Lauper, 70, who said she was still unsure about her attendance as her boyfriend said that he “doesn’t think it’s a hit.”
“And I said, ‘don’t miss the session,’” Richie told Kimmel who pointed out that “he gave a good advice.”
Richie recalled the “Time After Time” songstress later “showed up and killed it.”
“But the point was, you have to have an identifiable voice,” he said. “And whatever reason it was just Cyndi had that sound.”
“But you couldn’t have both of them,” Kimmel queried before adding “You guys made a mistake.”
The late-night host’s comment took the “American Idol” judge by surprise and Richie was forced to admit that Kimmel did have a point.
“You know I’m gonna I’m gonna say this now on national and international television. You’re right, you’re right,” Richie admits. “We made a mistake.”
Despite Richie’s admission, the track — which features the artistic ability of several icons such as Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and several others — is heralded as one of the greatest songs to ever exist.
The song went on to sell a whopping 20 million copies to benefit African famine relief.
“I thought a really important part of the story was the buildup and the planning of the night,” “Greatest Night in Pop” director Bao Nguyen told The Post.
“The planning of it was, like, crazy. They had to use Rolodexes and fax machines. And there’s no cell phones, there’s no Internet. So I can’t even fathom the logistical [issues] in that time to try to contact all these superstars.”
“The Greatest Night In Pop,” which was released late last month, is currently available to stream on Netflix.