Twisted Tales: Paul McCartney's Financial Advice to Michael Jackson Backfires

Posted on Sep 11th 2009 5:00PM by James Sullivan
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The song imagined a feud between Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. The point of contention was a girl they both had their eye on. In reality, there was no feud and, no surprise, no such girl. During the recording of 'The Girl Is Mine,' the King of Pop and the former Beatle watched cartoons and clowned around, throwing things at each other. Producer Quincy Jones called Jackson by his affectionate nickname, "Smelly."

About a year earlier, Jackson had stayed with McCartney and his wife, Linda, while in London to record another pair of songs together, including the future No. 1 'Say Say Say.' During the visit, McCartney reportedly pulled out a list of songs in his publishing catalog. Owning publishing rights, he explained, was the true path to big money in the music business. Jackson listened closely and filed away the advice for future reference.

In the video for 'Say Say Say,' McCartney posed as an old-time snake-oil salesman, selling a cure-all called Mac and Jack's. After Jackson drinks the stuff and beats a bodybuilder in an arm-wrestling contest, the singers ride off in a truck, counting a big bag of money.

A few years after the celebrated pairing of two of pop's biggest stars, their friendship ended over a much bigger bag of money. Under McCartney's nose, Jackson bought ATV Music Publishing, which controlled the rights to most of the Beatles songs written by McCartney and John Lennon. Lennon and McCartney's publishing house, Northern Songs, had fallen out of the hands of the songwriters in 1968, after the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Without notifying the band, music publisher Dick James sold a majority share in the company to the powerhouse ATV.

McCartney had tried to regain control of his own publishing rights in 1981, when he proposed an alliance with Yoko Ono in which they would offer a combined $20 million for the catalog. But Ono balked at the price, and McCartney let the deal fall through. Four years later, Jackson quietly bought ATV, including Northern Songs, for $47.5 million.

Ten years after the purchase, Jackson sold half of his interest in ATV to Sony for a reported $150 million, and the two companies merged, becoming Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In the 2000s, Jackson refuted rumors that he was looking to sell the Beatles catalog to defray the costs of running his compound, Neverland. Meanwhile, Sony/ATV continued to gobble up publishing rights, acquiring the songs of Hank Williams, Eminem and many others. In 2007, Jackson's stake in Sony/ATV was valued at $390 million.

Not long before Jackson's death, word spread that he was considering bequeathing his share of the Beatles' songs to McCartney. Regardless of the freaky timing -- the superstar would be dead within months -- the rumor turned out to be unfounded. It was "something I didn't believe for a second," McCartney announced a few weeks after Jackson's death, when Sir Paul was said to be "devastated" to learn he wouldn't be obtaining the rights. Not so, he protested, adding that though the two had "drifted apart" over the years, he still had "fond memories" of working together. The occasion afforded McCartney the opportunity to offer one more bit of advice: "Don't believe everything you read, folks!"