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Author Topic:  Wrote it, or just owns it?
Ralph Willsey

 

From:
Ottawa Valley, Canada
Post  Posted 10 Jan 2018 6:21 pm    
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Is there a way to know if “Famous Singer” actually wrote the song credited to him, or if he just bought the copyright?
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Mitch Drumm

 

From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
Post  Posted 10 Jan 2018 6:45 pm    
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I'd imagine there is----if you could dig deeply into the records of publishing companies and rights organizations.

Did you have a particular song in mind?

ASCAP and BMI have online sites, but I've never tried to find out details on a song farther back than whoever is credited at the moment--as opposed to when it may have changed hands in the past.

Rumors, lawsuits, and allegations have been around for ages of course. Outright theft, label owners demanding half interest to record the song, drunken poker games, etc. Some prolific writers didn't think anything of selling a song--they could just as easily write another one.
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Tony Prior


From:
Charlotte NC
Post  Posted 3 Feb 2018 9:07 am    
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Famous singer being credited a song doesn't make them the writer, just the singer of a song that made them famous

Frank Sinatra did not write MY WAY but if we even mention MY WY, we say Frank Sinatra. Frank also didn't pay any royalties personally , his record company , publisher and management company did.

WIKI

My Way lyrics were written by Paul Anka and set to the music of the French song "Comme d'habitude" co-composed and co-written (with Jacques Revaux), and performed in 1967 by Claude François. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the original French song.

Quite a twisted bag of who did what ! Very Happy
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Last edited by Tony Prior on 3 Feb 2018 10:14 am; edited 3 times in total
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Howard Parker


From:
Maryland
Post  Posted 3 Feb 2018 9:23 am    
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The Harry Fox Agency is a good place to start for determining who the publisher/copyright owner is. You can access their "Songfile" database for free.

I deal with licensing a lot. It's where I go, depending on what the tune is used for.

hp
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Erv Niehaus


From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
Post  Posted 3 Feb 2018 9:33 am    
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The singer doesn't need to "buy" the copyright, he just has to pay royalties to use it.
Maybe not him personally but somebody.
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Don R Brown


From:
Rochester, New York, USA
Post  Posted 4 Feb 2018 7:03 am    
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Tony Prior wrote:
Famous singer being credited a song doesn't make them the writer, just the singer of a song that made them famous

Frank Sinatra did not write MY WAY but if we even mention MY WY, we say Frank Sinatra. Frank also didn't pay any royalties personally , his record company , publisher and management company did.



While it may be old news to many, I was a bit surprised to learn recently that Merle Haggard did not write "The Fugitive". He wrote so many good ones, and I have heard that song by him so many times, I just took it for granted.

Likewise, there are many folks not into country music who would assure you that the Beatles wrote "Act Naturally".
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Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 7 Feb 2018 10:35 am    
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The Fugitive was written by Liz Anderson (& maybe her husband Casey) if I remember right.. Act Naturally was written by Johnny Russell and a lady co-writer I believe...

On another note "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" has listed as it's writer "Ivy J. Bryant" who's better known as super guitarist Jimmy Bryant. The actual writer was a local LA singer and bass player named Jim Alley.. When I was working with Johnny McKnight in the early seventies we had Jim on bass for awhile and he told me that he was doing a session and Jimmy was financing it and instead of money he got his pick of the songs instead and he chose ODTWTL............. Jim had a single 45rpm record of the song before this with his name on the record under the title as writer.........JH in Va.
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