I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

one of my favorite bits is Tiny Tim singing "Nowhere Man". it's so strange and beautiful. George puts together a really nice intro for him as well. which makes it funny when George shows up in the next one sounding like he just got out of bed and is smoking a huge joint.

I first heard these as a kid and our cat was named Jasper so I've always pictured the Jasper of Podgey and Jasper to be him.

1LP + booklet, $25, done.

Maybe that'll be coming later? I have a feeling part of doing them as an expensive box vs. a cheaper individual record/disc is less-informed consumers buying the latter and getting pissed that it's not actually an album of the Beatles doing X-Mas songs.

I suppose I could google this but I don't wanna wade through the results and I'm sure someone here knows the answer:

What exactly happened with the ownership of the Beatles catalog following the 80s Revolution/Nike ad (which, iirc was the result of MJ purchasing majority share, or something?) But then MJ went bankrupt, right, and Sony got it back? Or did the Beatles (Paul, Ringo, George + Yoko) get back controlling interest at some point? fwiw this is prompted by my recent re-watching of the Mad Men episode with "Tomorrow Never Knows" in it, (the appearance of which is preceded by a clever on-screen acknowledgment that "no one gets the Beatles") that made me wonder why, if the Beatles don't control it, their shit was not licensed more often. The Nike thing seems like a real outlier, and their stuff seems to only very selectively appear in other media (like, say, Rock Band), often with the direct involvement of surviving Beatles.

looks like Paul got the rights back in 2017? here is some history:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7662519/beatles-catalog-paul-mccartney-brief-history-ownership

https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/paul-mccartney-beatles-rights-win/

reading that history - kinda mystifying that Jackson and Sony didn't cash in with licensing Beatles songs throughout the 90s and into the 00s, when presumably they could have made a shit-ton.

Get the impression that MJ was so rich and spendthrift and impulsive it was more about accumulating/collecting things, spending money over making money. Which, of course, is a pretty poor business model.

I think that's an accurate take on it

I'm not a lawyer, so

How did Nike get the rights to the actual recording of "Revolution" then? In other words, how is owning a published copyright to a song the same as owning the recording? I would've assumed EMI would own the recordings of that one or "Tomorrow Never Knows."

kinda mystifying that Jackson and Sony didn't cash in with licensing Beatles songs throughout the 90s and into the 00s, when presumably they could have made a shit-ton.

They sort of did, they just couldn't use the original recordings (which--iirc--they were blocked from doing after the Nike ad). I remember the Posies or some band like them doing a version of "Getting Better" for an ad.

Nike wouldn't have had publishing rights - they would have had a licence to use it.

Song publishing/copyright holder of the recording/licensing are all different things.

Gomez did a cover of 'Getting Better' for some ad... I can't remember who for! I want to say Philips, but...

So Nike used the original recording under license by the owner of the recording. What did Michael Jackson have to do with that then? (Serious question!)

He allowed them to use the actual song. After the Beatles had EMI block use of the original recording, he licensed other songs for use via covers.

Here's the original ad, for the curious...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAI8eUtwJzo

Michael Jackson owned the publishing, not the copyright of the original recording itself? Surely, that means that Jackson would have said yes to use of the song, and EMI would have had to have given permission to use that particular recording?

Yeah, EMI signed off on the recording. The Beatles then went to EMI and told them not to do that anymore without THEIR permission.

Also for the curious, here's one of those Philips ads that used a cover of "Getting Better" as a tag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GldUw89Yc8Y

Nortel Networks used a cover of "Come Together" in 2000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5HCo2a5CEU

From what I remember (I think there was a passage about this in The Book of Rock Lists) MJ and his people had a master list of about 20-30 Beatles songs they felt were suitable for commercial licensing, pending that the licensee could meet their price.

I seem to remember Nike using 'Instant Karma!' as well?

no way!

That seems unlikely. Yoko would've been the sole person to sign off on it, and I can't imagine her doing so (unless that part of John's catalog was controlled by Allen Klein).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmmpbSlr8UQ

Seems like other companies have used it too.

haha welp

wow

just... why

A quick Google confirms that I wasn't dreaming it and it did happen... and Yoko signed off on it, which I didn't realise. A couple of early solo tracks were published through Northern Songs, and I thought that may have been one of 'em.

(x-post)

Yup, that's the one!

Well, I'll be

In 1988,[129] Ono allowed the footwear and apparel company Nike to feature "Instant Karma!" in an advertising campaign, after a public outcry the previous year had forced her to withdraw permission for the use of Lennon's Beatles composition "Revolution".[130]

So she was basically like, "Oh, you hated it when a beloved song was used in an ad? I hear you. We'll license a different beloved song."

It seems her justification for it was to "bring (John's) music to a new audience", which I would understand if he wasn't one of the most well known popular music figures ever, even in the early '90s where The Beatles were considered "old hat" in the UK (The popularity of mid '90s UK indie changed that - of course in the US it was a different story)

She should have made them use 'Why' instead.

i think that nike commercial was the first time i heard "instant karma" -- mission accomplished, yoko!

yeah tbf, I think it had pretty much vanished from "classic rock" radio by that time.

Really? What solo Lennon stuff was getting airplay on "classic rock" radio then? I assume 'Imagine' and 'Jealous Guy' were the two big ones?

When I was a kid ('90s), it was "Instant Karma!", "Watching The Wheels", and "Imagine".

I remember quite a fair bit of Lennon on VH-1 UK circa 1994-1996, but next to none on radio, apart from 'Imagine' ...

Only solo Lennon I remember hearing on the radio in the '90s and later was "Imagine," and maybe "Jealous Guy" once or twice. But solo Beatles in general seemed to disappear from that radio format around '91-'92.

That's interesting - what about McCartney's newer material?

I've never heard any solo McCartney song recorded after 2001 (that awful "Freedom" thing) on the radio. The last time I remember a new McCartney song getting regular airplay was "My Brave Face" in 1989.

'Hope of Deliverance' was the last McCartney track I remember being heavily played on UK radio. The video to 'Young Boy' got some play on VH-1, but not a lot, and it remains the most recent music video I've seen on TV of his. After that, I don't remember any new McCartney track really being played on radio, aside from 'Dance Tonight' ...

Classic Rock Macca as I recall is: "Maybe I'm Amazed" (live); "Jet" and the other BOTR hits; "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"; "Let 'Em In"; "Silly Love Songs"; and "With A Little Luck". Nothing post-'78 unless it was on "Breakfast With The Beatles".

"live and let die" is the one i seem to hear the most on my local classicke rocke station

Oh yeah, that one too! Can't believe I forgot it.

I don't remember hearing any Harrison on the radio at all, apart from when 'Got My Mind Set On You' was out and it was getting the shit played out of it. Not even 'My Sweet Lord'!

Yeah, I hear L&LD from time to time. But my local "classic rock" station -- one of the worst I've heard, I should point out -- is more likely to play the GnR version.

xp

Heh, "All Those Years Ago" got play.

I'm talking about UK radio from the late '80s/early '90s onwards - I appreciate that it'd be a different story in the US.

Those differences would be cool to count.

I mean, it's the Beatles. You wouldn't think there'd be much leeway between what CR stations were playing, but who knows? Maybe the UK is jamming out to Blow Away while Americans swear by Dark Horse.

Well, the UK didn't really start getting "Classic Rock" oriented stations until very late in the day - perhaps late '90s/early '00s.

Pre-digital, generally you had BBC Radio One for "current" music, BBC Radio Two for older music, yer regional stations (which tended to be as mainstream/"current" as Radio One) and stuff like LW Radio Atlantic 252.

never heard any solo McCartney song recorded after 2001

fourfiveseconds?