only a northern song

[Birchy]

Why didn't Lennon and McCartney ensure that they took ownership of Northern Songs right from the start? I assume that it is still owned by Michael Jackson, but how was he allowed to get hold of it?

[andy hughes]

The initial Northern Songs Company was set up by Beatles' manager Brian Epstein and publisher Dick James, with Lennon and McCartney as minor shareholders. Lennon and McCartney eventually sold their Northern Songs shares, and the copyright went with the sale. With hindsight, The Beatles have learned the massive value of publishing rights, and would have acted differently had they been aware at that time.
But as young musicians, they were unaware of the importance of their decision, and in those more naive times, so probably was Epstein.The complexities concerning The Beatles' legal dealings are far too complex to go into here, but the simplified version is that Northern Songs was eventually aquired by ATV Music, who then sold it on to Michael Jackson. The story goes that Jackson told Paul McCartney that he, Jackson, would aquire the copyright to The Beatles' material as soon as he could - McCartney didn't take Jackson seriously, and was most upset to find his material bought by someone he regarded as a friend. There is nothing underhand or illegal in Jackson's acquisition; it was a simple business transaction which anyone with the finnancial backing could have achieved. Relations between McCartney and Jackson remain 'strained', especially since Jackson arranged for Yoko Ono to receive a higher royalty rate for use of the Lennon-McCartney compositions.

[wendysavage1]

Thanks for the apocryphal answer. Complete rubbish as usual, but nevertheless vaguely amusing. I eagerly await the day when Mr Hughes gives a genuine answer to an answerbank question.

[andy hughes]

I am sorry to read that wendysavage1 takes exception to my answer. If ms.savage1 would like to point out the errors in my answer as she perceives them, the Questioner and I would be interested to read them. As far as 'genuine' answers are concerned, I only ever provide genuine answers. To do any other would be against the spirit of The Answerbank, as indeed is abuse of other visitors.

[wendysavage1]

if all your answers are genuine what went wrong with your Beatles owning the rights to The Lord of the Rings answer? You do realise that it is not necessary to answer every question on Answerbank, regardless of knowledge?

[andy hughes]

By 'genuine' I mean that the facts are as I understand them, and my opinions are my own. My response to the Beatles' LOTR involvement advised that I had not seen any publicity linking the two around the recent movie release, and my opinion was that the story may be untrue. I am always happy to have any opinion corrected by fact, but that does not mean that I intended any deceit by my response. I am aware that it is not necessary to answer all questions, but I do believe most Users appreciate a 'more the merrier' approach, as indeed do I in relation to my own questions - if you feel that this is inappropriate, I hope you will accept my apologies. Thank you for your continued interest in The Answerbank.