Michael Jackson would “ignore” letters sent by Paul McCartney when he tried to buy back the rights to his songs, the Wings frontman claimed.
The Thriller hitmaker had once joked with The Beatles member that he would one day “own your songs”. McCartney thought little of the comment at the time, but was surprised to learn Jackson had, in fact, bought his discography from under his nose. Jackson got in contact with attorney John Branca, who helped him buy the rights to 1960s songs, and it was this partnership which led to the Billie Jean songwriter buying up thousands of songs in a deal to procure the ATV backlog. McCartney and Yoko Ono had both passed on the sale, with the Let It Be hitmaker saying it was simply out of his budget. Ono said, at the time, she had no problem with Jackson owning the songs.
Jackson would ultimately spend $47.5million on the thousands of songs, a staggering increase from his initial $30million, made on his behalf by Branca. Speaking of his decision to spend so much on the back catalogue, Jackson said: “You can’t put a price on a Picasso… you can’t put a price on these songs, there’s no value on them.
“They’re the best songs that have ever been written.” The deal would sour McCartney and Jackson’s friendship, with the popstar pair’s relationship never truly fixed after the song sale. The Beatles’ bassist and songwriter said he could never afford to buy the songs back from Jackson.
He said: “He won’t even answer my letters, so we haven’t talked, and we don’t have that great a relationship. The trouble is, I wrote those songs for nothing and buying them back at these phenomenal sums, I just can’t do it.”
Despite the breakdown in the relationship of the two, fans remain delighted by their work together. McCartney and Jackson worked together on the song Say Say Say, the lead single for McCartney’s Pipes of Peace album.
The pair also worked on Jackson’s Thriller track, The Girl is Mine. Footage of the pair working together has stunned fans of both artists, and a post to r/TheBeatles left many praising the collaboration. The clip comes from Thriller 40, a documentary released to celebrate forty years since the release of Thriller. McCartney and Jackson’s collaborative efforts still prove surprising, and an interviewee heard in the clip says it was part of finding a new sound following the release of Off the Wall.
A further snippet saw McCartney and Jackson riffing with one another on the final The Girl is Mine recording. Fans of both artists loved the footage, with one writing: “I’m blown away this exists; I’d not seen it. So cool.” Another added: “So cool that this footage exists.”
Another added: “Two titans. Who would have believed we’d have Paul with us longer than Michael?” Other users questioned the quality of the songs made from the collaboration. Though Say Say Say and The Girl is Mine proved successful, their overall quality and lasting impact was lessened by some.
One user wrote: “Say what you want about the final product, but they both look happy. And that makes me pretty happy. On that note, I hope Sir Paul is with us for much longer.”
Another added: “I’m probably in the minority, but I’ve always hated the song too. Michael Jackson was in many ways the epitome of ’80s commercial pop, which is just nails on a chalkboard to me. I can see the surface-level appeal for Paul, but for me, his music goes way, way deeper than that.”
