4th Annual Rainforest Foundation Benefit-Carnegie Hall 3-2-1993

              From 1991 until 1997 I was lucky enough to go to the annual Rainforest Foundation Benefits at Carnegie Hall. Each year there were a number of different artists included, from various music genres. Sting is the one performer who was the mainstay for all the shows, since it was the charity he is most associated with.
The first year I went was in 1991 when the show was billed as An Evening With Sting and Jobim and....
That year Elton John also appeared along with Brazilian greats Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. The format was very straightforward. Sting performed a short set which included Someone to Watch Over Me, Mad About You, Message in a Bottle, Fragile and a few others. Elton John then performed two solo songs, Sacrifice and Your Song and then was joined by Sting for Come Down in Time. Chief Raoni then gave a very long speech about the devastating effects of the Rainforest being stripped.
          The second half of the show brought Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil together to perform a song, and then each performed 2 solo songs. Brazilian legend Antonio Carlos Jobim then performed the final set. Sting joined him for How Insensitive and then all the artists joined for Girl From Ipanema. It was a very good show, but it was not until the next year when an evening of classic standards was performed that produced a format they would pretty much use from then on.
            The Third Annual Benefit, the second at Carnegie Hall, once again featured Sting and Elton John, along with Don Henley, James Taylor and Natalie Cole, with a surprise appearance by Whoopi Goldberg. The first half had the guys performing classic songs such as Something's Coming from West Side Story performed by Sting, Getting to Know You from the King and I performed by James Taylor, and a reggae inspired version of Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat from Guys and Dolls performed by Don Henley. The second half had Natalie Cole performing with a full orchestra, and then each of the artists performing one song with the orchestra, and then the finale by all the artists of Cole Porter's Well Did You Evah.
            The next year was a truly great show which featured Sting, Bryan Adams, James Taylor, Herb Alpert, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McKellan, George Michael, Tom Jones and Tina Turner. Ian Mckellan did a very funny reading about the different levels of weather and Herb Alpert threw a bar of Spanish Flea into This Guys in Love with You. Tom Jones and George Michael were backed by Sting and his band  Here is the setlist from that show.

               Englishman in New York - Sting
               Copperline - James Taylor
               (Everything I Do) I Do it For You - Bryan Adams
               Waiting For That Day/You Can't Always Get What You Want - George Michael
               Slap Leather - James Taylor
               Fields of Gold - Sting
               Run to You - Bryan Adams
               Frozen Man - James Taylor
               Freedom(Wham song) - George Michael
               Reading by Dustin Hoffman
               Fragile - Sting & Herb Alpert
               Speech by Larry Cox
               Speech by Trudie Styler
               The Water is Wide - James Taylor
               Reading by Ian McKellan

                                Intermission

               Penny Lane - Sting w/George Michael on Background vocals
               Blackbird - Sting
               A Day in the Life - Sting
               Crying in the Rain - James Taylor & Sting
               Memphis Tennessee - James Taylor
               All in the Game - James Taylor
               This Guys in Love with You - Herb Alpert
               The Wanderer - Bryan Adams
               C'Mon Everybody - Bryan Adams
               You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover - Bryan Adams
               We Can Work it Out - George Michael & Sting
               Every Breath You Take - George Michael & Sting
               Shoot the Breeze - Sting w/Dustin Hoffman on piano(who also wrote the song)
               It's Not Unusual - Tom Jones
               Dock of the Bay - Tom Jones
               Take Me to the River - Tom Jones
               Try a Little Tenderness - Tom Jones
               It's Only Love - Bryan Adams & Tina Turner
               River Deep Mountain High - Tina Turner
 
                              FINALE

                River Deep Mountain High - All artists