Rights In Songs

[FredPuli43]

Lennon and McCartney wrote jointly, writing a share of the tunes and the lyrics. Rogers and Hart wrote each separately. If someone broadcasts or records "Love me do" they pay a royalty, whether or not they use the words, to both contributors or their successors in title. What happens if someone records or broadcasts only the tune of "My Funny Valentine" ? Do the rights holders of Lorenz Hart's output miss payment ?

[VHG]

>>>Lennon and McCartney wrote jointly, writing a share of the tunes and the lyrics.

That's not totally true, as many Beatles songs were written by JUST Lennon or JUST McCartney. For example McCartney wrote Yesterday on his own, and none of the other Beatles appeared on the recorded song.

However all song by one or the other of them HAD to be listed as a Lennon / McCartney song due to a contract they signed early on in the Beatles career.

That is why sometimes Lennon wrote with Yoko Ono and McCartney wrote with Linda, so their songs would not be listed as Lennon / McCartney.

[VHG]

I think in the case of Rogers and Hart (or any duo where one writes the tune the other the words - like Elton John and Bernie Taupin) it is still listed as a joint composition, with no differentiation about who did what.

After all many songs by bands list all the members of the band as writers, which may be 4 or 5 people, and it would be impossible to say who wrote the tune and who wrote the words as they probably all did a bit of each.

I guess the main situation where this arises is if a tune is written as an instrumental FIRST, then months or years later lyrics are added.

Then you have a situation where there is a writer of the instrumental tune on its own, and the writers of the version with the tune and lyrics combined.

That could certainly get interesting regards who gets paid what.

[VHG]

In fact this opens up a lot of interesting situations.

For example on the Pink Floyd album Dark side of the Moon there is a song called The Great Gig In The sky.

This was originally written by Richard Wright and was credited on the original album as such.

But the song features an improvised vocal by a lady called Clare Torry who was hired as a session singer for the song and paid the £30 going rate as a session singer.

But then she sued Pink Floyd to become co-writer of the song and in 2005 it was decided she WAS the co-writer and the song is now credited as Wright / Torry.

She has probably earned more money for being co-writer of that song than for any other work she has done. Being a co-writer to a hit song is very lucrative.

This opens up a whole debate about how much influence does a session musician or session singer have on the success of a song.

For example would Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty have been such a hit without the Raphael Ravenscroft Saxophone, but he probably only got paid a session fee.

And on many of the Beach Boys songs, including their biggest hits, the instruments were played by top session musicians (The Wrecking Crew) and none of the Beach Boys played on them.

But again they probably only got paid a session fee and earned nothing as co-writers.

[FredPuli43]

I bet it's in the sessions musicians' contract that the fee is all they get. I haven't dealt with musicians' contracts but I have with film ones; believe me, the standard contracts there are as tightly written as you'd ever see, covering everything from who gets a credit (I've seen one list that included the man whose real job was emptying mobile toilets !)to anyone whose credit is not to be granted or is in dispute not being able to get an injunction to stop filming or release and distribution, and every other conceivable right or problem. There's no reason to think that the music business does not do alike and has learnt from its mistakes

[Fish the Mod]

in fact Lennon and McCartney very rarely wrote jointly, they run it over each other for an opinion but mostly it was very individual. You can tell who wrote what by who sings the lead vocals. McCartney only sings McCartney songs on tour. To make publishing deals easy it was agreed that all songs by Lennon and McCartney be formed into one company called Northern songs.