Musical barf alert

[SarahB]

I just heard a remake of Lennon's song "Beautiful Boy". Having little boys, I've especially loved that song, but then I turn the radio earlier tonight, and there's this insipid woman singing it. Who was it? Celine f*cking Dion? Who owns these songs now? Didn't Yoko sell them to Jacko back in the late 80's or something? I'm not sure, but I wonder who keeps selling out his stuff. Bad enough there were the sneaker commercials, but Celine?
Made me hurl. :puke:

[JimmyJazz]

1. no, Yoko didn't sell them to Jacko - he was the highest bidder when

the company that owned the catalog put it up for auction. I think McCartney expect Jackson to step aside (memory now, not reading) and allow him to be the highest bidder but that didn't happen. As a result a rift developed between the two (who had recorded some stupid song together: Ebony and Ivory???)


http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031210.html

[Squeech]

2. I think Yoko still owns John's solo stuff

But really, anybody can cover any song, as long as they pay mechanical royalties to the appropriate party (usually the publishing company, which is part of why the music business is so weird).

It's when they start to use songs for non-musical purposes (like ads) that explicit permission is required.

[SarahB]

3. I didn't know that.

I thought anyone who did a cover had to get permission from whomever owns rights to the song. It's too bad. Some covers are really bad.