A rumor that’s been floating all around cyberspace since the sudden death of Michael Jackson has been debunked by none other than Sir Paul McCartney. Contrary to popular belief, Jackson did not bequeath his stake in the Beatles’ song catalog to McCartney in his will – but Paul insists that he never expected the late singer to do so.
Paul McCartney posted a message on his website denying rumors that he’s upset Michael Jackson did not bequeath to him the rights to his Beatles songs. In a post on paulmccartney.com, the former member of the Fab Four wrote:
Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will which was completely made up and something I didn’t believe for a second.
“Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn’t leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report was true and therefore, the report that I’m devastated is also totally false, so don’t believe everything you read folks!
In fact, though Michael and I drifted apart over the years, we never really fell out, and I have fond memories of our time together.
At times like this, the press do tend to make things up, so occasionally, I feel the need to put the record straight.
Paul
Jackson purchased the rights to more than 200 Beatles songs back in 1985, after Paul himself gave him the advice that song rights and music publishing were more lucrative than recording deals. Jackson famously outbid Paul when the rights for the songs were up for auction, including titles such as “Yesterday,” “Let it Be,” and the entire track selection of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” McCartney was reportedly livid about it, and even as recently as 2006, he said: “You know what doesn’t feel very good, is going on tour and paying to sing all my songs. Every time I sing ‘Hey Jude,’ I’ve got to pay someone.” More recently, the songs were at the center of a controversial partnership between Jackson and Sony, during which the singer offered up the catalog as collateral. Jackson purchased the rights for these songs for a reported $48 million, and now this catalog is thought to be worth more than $400 million.
While it would have been a wonderful gesture on Jackson’s part to give these songs back to the person that many consider their rightful owner, it may not have been legally possible for him to do so, since Sony also claims part ownership of the songs. And while Paul McCartney probably didn’t expect the songs to be returned to him, it has to be frustrating nonetheless. Maybe he’s not upset by the will – but knowing that the songs he and John Lennon wrote together are now part of the Sony conglomerate – and will keep the Jackson family in sequins for decades to come- has to be a bummer.
it’s an investment and as such should benefit his children.
Yeah, it would be pretty galling to have to pay to sing your own songs.
i wondered when this topic would come up…
hmmm… I feel like there should be an exception to the copyright laws for the author. Paul should be able to sing the songs he wrote, but pay for the ones he didn’t write.
Michael left his part of the ownership to his kids. So if he wanted to, he could have left it to Paul instead. It is sad that Paul has to pay Michael’s estate to play his own songs but the songs were up for auction. If not Michael somebody else could have gotten them. Also these songs are helping to secure his kids’ future. Michael, no parent, would put a (former?) friend ahead of of their own kids’ security.
I think the catalogue is up only for 10 more years. I’m not sure but then the songs will either go back to the autor or fall in the public domain ?
You should ask Yoko Ono how happy she is as well, that’s interresting.
This is as terrible as designers like Kenzo, Chantal Thomas or Ines de la Fressange that can’t use their own names anymore on their creations.
Does it depend on where it’s copyrighted? I think in the UK (and definitely Ireland) it’s 75 years. It was successfully increased from 50 due to pressure by writers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and McCartney up there. I think – I know current copyright here is for 75 years (50 in USA?) and vaguely remember something to do with it being extended.
Is it definite that these assets were left to his children? The kids and mother were left 40% each. What if they’re in her hands?
I agree with Kath that the author of the songs should be exempt from paying to sign his own songs.
Paul should have dug deeper into his pockets and outbid Michael….
Paul made great music with Michael. I love ” say say say” and ” the girl is mine”. Paul doesn’t need the money but Michael’s children and charities his will supports, can benefit more from it.
Too bad for Paul. Tough luck. He should have come up with all that cash from when the Beatles were in their prime to buy the song rights. What’s wrong Paul, blow all that money? Boo-hoo.
Paul is nothing if not a shrewd businessman. He knows how this work. His messsage was perfectly reasonable.
BTW, the “Say, Say, Say” video ROCKED when I was a kid!
I think the rumor came out of another rumor that MJ gave James Brown his songs back after buying them. I remember hearing Dick Gregory say it..but Dick can be a little off his rocker at times so it’s hard to say if it’s true.
No falling out? Wasn’t PM totally pissed off and pretty much hated Michael Jackson when he sneakily outbid him?
~
That’s something i never understood when i first heard about mj buying the rights. Macca has a lot of money and could have easily afforded the rights, with or without yoko. Don’t understand why he didn’t snap them up when he could.
What most are not considering here is that Paul sold the songs for cash in the first place. Just like when Cheech and Chong broke up they abandon their own website which was auctioned off. A young man from Jersey bought it and when they got back together they threatened him with a lawsuit. McCartney should have never sold it to begin with and kept all his rights. Ray Charles made a deal to keep all his own masters when he left Omet and company. So becareful how you fly off handles and get greedy in life or it will come back to bite you in the ass
As I understand copyright law, Paul never “sold” the rights because the rights were corporately held by MacLen Music; copyright comes up for renewal every number of years by statute. So the $48 million Michael paid was part of a sealed bidding process. Every now and then, the rights come up for auction again and the McCartney billions will have to bid against Sony.
just goes to show you. you give somebody advice and they turn around and screw you. Smart business people learn the hard way keep your mouth shut.
Michael Jackson hasn’t owned the rights to the Beatles’ catalog for a while now.
He sold the rights to MGM/Mirage for a boat-load in 06.
That’s why McCartney has been able to play all of his songs at his concerts, and why The Mirage is able to do LOVE without paying rights, the all Beatles Cirque show.
I was searching for an article to link, and can’t find one– but seriously, I know Jackson sold the rights a while ago. I think they must have courted him quietly while he was in deep with his many persecutors; you know when the MGM/Mirage was hiding him throughout their properties.
I don’t understand how someone can write, compose and sing the song they have wrote and composed and it’s not theirs. How did Sir Paul get these songs taken from him to being with? To much b.s. over money. Money the root of all evil! Things need to change.
Im a musician too and if I had to pay to sing my own song’s rich or not that would kill me.He was crazy to let MJ out bid him.I feel bad for paul,now it’s going to cost him a pretty penny to get them back. “Good Luck”
That’s crap on MJ’s part, and for Paul McCartney to have to pay to sing his own songs, that’s really stupid. I agree completely with McCartney on this one.
My understanding of what happened when the rights were auctioned off, is that Paul didn’t feel OK about bidding without John’s consent. While he was trying to contact John, MJ bought the rights. I don’t know if either of them knew that the other was bidding.
Also, I believe that the copyright clock in the US doesn’t start until the author has passed away.
Paul was then and now a billionaire. And if he thought his songs would make so much money decades later-he would have bid until it was his. The facts are, he saw his own songs as not worth the money,he was wrong and now makes it sound like he was “cheated”
I’m just glad that when djs play music, they mention who sang the song first, and sometimes who wrote it. The only time I hear who owns or doesn’t own it, is when discussing Beatles music or a song like “Unchained Melody,” which was played heavily after the movie “Ghost” came out. It brought zero profit to the Righteous Brothers, the singers of that version, because the rights had been sold earlier.
He was outbid because he didnt want to pay for songs in the catalogue thats werent beatles songs. MJ didnt mind so he bought them. He should have left them to Paul.
John Lennon died in 1980. the songs went up for auction in 1985. Unless Paul was trying to contact John via Ouija board, that story’s not true.
The auction was, as one poster above said, a sealed, private auction. It wasn’t like MJ and PM were sitting in a room raising their hands to outbid one another.
The Jackson kids will be set for life just on the royalties from the MJ song catalog alone. Especially now that his music is being played all over the place and several of his albums are back in the top 10.
Michael got the advise about buying somgs from Paul and then when he found out the Beatles catalog was up for sale, he never even informed Paul…and then he had the nerve to outbid his “friend”…..to me that’s back stabbing
pauls father in law was the one who knew all about music publishing when mike was staying at pauls home during the making of pauls album the subject of music pub. came up when atv/norther songs came on the market paul and yoko could have each paid 10 million . paul had the cash but could not pull the trigger .along comes john branca in 1985 and mj buys it for 47.5 million. seven years later sony pays 95 mill for 50 % . im sure paul is kicking his self for not making a move.
Michael sold 50% of the Atv catalog to Sony he retained 50% ownership. The entire catalog is worth $1billlion+ accoding to WSJ.. If the estate sells his 1/2 they can wipe out his debt. He also his own Mijac publishing and other assets.
The songs will always be known as Paul’s and the Beatles. They are a part of their souls, sound and experiences of life that created their art. That can not be bought or sold. Yesterday, is still Yesterday.
Mary
What should happen is, they should auction the right to the music and pay the City of Los Angeles for the memorial that was at the staple center..what I heard it was over $4 miilion or so either over or under.The money should be given to the city for all the police security..I sure do not want to pick up the bill and I know of others who do not want to also.
I HAVE READ ALL THE ABOVE COMMENTS AND HAVE A COMMENT TO MAKE CONCERNING THE STATEMENT “MONEY IS ROOT OF EVIL” SHOULD IT NOT HAVE BEEN STATED THAT
” MONEY “IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? “LOVE OF MONEY” IS—-GREEDY. PEOPLE WHO HAVE GREAT WEALTH OR “RICH PEOPLE” ARE NOT EVIL JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE SO MUCH MONEY. PEOPLE WHO ARE GREEDY FOR MORE AND WANT IT ALL ARE THE
ONES WHO WILL ULTIMATELY DO EVIL IN HOPES OF GAINING MORE . GREED. ” LOVE OF MONEY” THANKS FOR READING AND GIVING A THOUGHT TO GREED BEING ROOT OF EVIL—-GREED OF MONEY, GREED OF LOVE, GREED OF POWER, GREED ( LOVE OF MONEY IS GREED) THANKS AGAIN.
I THINK NO ONE SHOULD POST UGLY COMMENTS ABOUT MJ OR ANY OTHER PERSON THAT HAS PASSED. CONSIDER THAT PERSON HAS A MOTHER, A FATHER , SISTER OR BROTHER, EVEN CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND, NOT TO EVEN MENTION MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF FRIENDS, JUST PEOPLE WHO————–
CRY WET TEARS OF GRIEF WITH HURTING HEARTS BEATING IN THEIR CHESTS. HAVE YOU EVER CRIED A TEAR WITH TRUE FEELING?? MAYBE NOT SINCE YOU SO OPENLY HURT OTHERS WITH MAKING YOUR—-RATHER STUPID STATEMENTS.
Ppl talk trash to MJ because he screwed Paul over. No matter how you look at it, MJ screwed Paul. Period. I had a lot respect for Micheal until finding out he bought the Beatles’ catalogs. He never even gave it back to Paul. Michael makes enough money on all of his music…Someone should seriously buy his music, and exploit it. All you MJ fans wouldn’t like it…get the point now?
A couple of years ago, YouTube had a video of the people who owned the Beatles catalog before Michael Jackson bought it. According to the previous owners, they went to Paul McCartney a couple of times and offered to sell the catalog back to him (they wanted to retire and cash out). McCartney refused to buy the catalog back.
They also said that Jackson’s interest in it had less to do with the Beatles and more to do with the Black artists’ music within the catalog.
Ppl are pissed at MJ for screwing Paul over, and no matter how you look at it, that’s what happened. MJ screwed a friend, and he won’t even give back the catalog to Paul. A celebrity, or someone else should buy MJ’s catalog of songs, and exploit them. MJ fans would be sounding the same, and would be mad.
KANYE!!!!!!
please stop hurting your computer and type without the caps.
It is so dumb. The media blows everything just get sales. It was a pure and simple, a business deal and that was it. End of story.
Incredibly dumb rumor … yes, Michael is going to “give away” a portfolio worth $400 million to Paul McCartney that brings in $75M a year to his estate (i.e., his kids and family). Right … and the other rumor is I will wake up tomorrow next to Jessica Alba. The media today must make Edward R. Murrow spin in his grave.
I believe the copyright law in the US changed in 1975 to life of the artist plus 50 years…so I don’t know if copyrights were “grandfathered” in under the new law or still subject to the old law prior to that. I’m also not sure whether they needed a seperate copyright in the US if they were originally copyrighted in the UK.
Poor Paul…as if he’s not rich enough. We all make choices don’t we? It is what it is!
After fifty years these songs will become public domain
[They may have extended it] so you cannot keep the song forever but you can patent your arrangement of them.
Helen R. Brown, (34, 35) I think you are trying to say what I wanted to say:
The LOVE of money is the root of
all evil. Not MONEY is the root
of all evil.
Quite a difference.
If McCartney hadn’t been so cheap, he would own his own songs. Too bad, so sad.
Paul, Take a look at the man in the mirror. Take out a crowbar, open up your wallet and buy back the rights to your songs. This cheap billionaire sent his kids to public schools. His own kids have commented on what a tightwad he is.
I WOULD like to see these legal issues erased and the music that McCartney and his “Beatle” associates created either be purchased BACK by McCartney himself or given an opportunity!
I would HATE to see “Papa Jackson” get control over this!
Hmmmm… did I just use the word “CONTROL”?!?
Michael did backstab him. Period. To make money at the expense of a friend is not being a friend. It’s backstabbing. Sounds like MJ was the greedy one.
i think its stupid that one of the most talented men alive (i really like the beatles) has to pay to sin the songs he wrote there must be an exeption i mean he was a BEATLE and now he has to py to sing the songs he wrote and helped wright its complete bull i dont really care about michael not leaving the rights to him but they need to make an exeption he wrote the F#$%ing songs he desirves the rights to them and yes he was cheated while he was contacting john L, on an ouiji board (lol) michael bid on the songs and its right
The reason the Beatles did not own their songs was that they got together a corporation or something to own them so they would not be taxed individually. Which was like 90% taxes. So it was a way to save money. Then when the corporation, or whatever sold the rights, Paul was ready to buy, but MJ outbid him…. Paul had told him it was a good thing to buy… Paul is a great guy, gave advise to MJ, the best financial advise MJ ever had and he didn’t have the second wife sign a pre-nup. He is not a greedy man.
enough with the people that are TYPING IN ALL CAPS. Get with the program people, there’s a thing called a SHIFT key. Use it. Pretty rude to make it difficult for readers with your ALL CAPS nonsense. Maroooons! Tards.
What we are seeing here is the back end of the story, not the front. The front end fact is that at some point, Paul McCartney thought it lucrative to sign over or sell his songs to someone else, who probably paid him great for it at the time. He knew what he was signing up for then and chose to do it. Now that the Jacksons/Sony own them, they will have them until 75 years after McCartney’s death at which point they will revert to the public domain and be free to all. That is the law. There is a clause in the law that states that McCartney’s family has the right to reclaim them 28 years after his death, free of charge by simply writing a letter to the current owner. If they don’t claim them, it will stay with the current owner for the rest of the 75 years.
Poor McCartney, but I do believe that he should have shelled out the extra cash to buy his songs. He must feel like crap every time he pays royalties.
The Northern Songs /ATV catalogue was was bought in accordance with how song copyrights are bought and sold throughout the entire music business.
Paul Mcartney had ample opportunity to buy his songs back and he didn’t take it. In actuality, Michael Jackson and John Branca actually walked away from the deal twice.
Additionally, if John and Paul hadn’t sold their publishing in the first place for money, the copyrights wouldn’t even have been available.
Apart from the reality that in a real
sense Paul Mcartney will always ‘own’ his songs – as he wrote them, the sale of the copyright was – and is, just another example of what goes on between publishers and lawyers every day in the world of publishing.
The overlay that somehow Jackson did ‘something wrong’ is frankly ridiculous.
I liked as much as you will receive performed right here. The cartoon is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nevertheless, you command get bought an edginess over that you would like be delivering the following. sick surely come more until now once more since exactly the similar nearly very incessantly inside case you shield this hike.
I write music, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d feel pretty guilty owning someone’s work – and if I owned someone’s work, I would give it back – if I couldn’t legally, I would ask what I can, and cannot do with the person’s work. A true friend would do the same. Paul can’t get by with a lil help from a friend cuz he screwed him over!! I can’t believe ppl can’t see that. MJ fans are so blind.
One could argue that MJ was better at buying the catalogs than any other business crook, but that’s like saying it’s better for my friend to bang my gf, than a random person…but seriously, a typical MJ fan would say “MJ buying it is better than anyone else buying it”…but he exploited the song by using revolution on a Pepsi commercial.
One could argue that MJ was better at buying the catalogs than any other business crook, but that’s like saying it’s better for my friend to bang my gf, than a random person…but seriously, a typical MJ fan would say “MJ buying it is better than anyone else buying it”…but he exploited the song by using revolution on a Pepsi commercial. Shame on MJ for this.