Explosive increase in Beatles' presence in media

Including the use of All You Need Is Love as the soundtrack for a Blackberry commercial? Prior to now, the only use of Beatles' material outside their own properties was the final episode of Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner (1967). Lennon was a fan of the show.

Well, I asked "if you spoze" MJ had anything to do with keeping the material off-air. And I spoze you don't. Spoze that is. OK, he's not a schmow, just a spook (the halloween kind, not the oblique racial slur kind). Shimona! The surgeon who created that ghoulish nose and jawline should be sentenced to wearing them himself. Just between us, his chin looked like a bulldog scrotum. And he was such a handsome guy before he had himself hacked.

Obviously, something got all the property lawyers to Come Together for this broad media release. Sure, it's promotion for new and upcoming releases. There's so much cross ownership in the cable industry, they probably have a financial interest in running the material. Plus the cable industry is chronically hungry for fresh content, and these shows are polished and cable-ready.

I was mistaken/misremembering to say "never on media before". ABC preempted 3 whole nights to run Beatles Anthology, promoting the release of that package.

Still, promoting their own products and releasing songs to be used as commercial soundtracks are two different things.

Thanks for the details! Funny how complicated it gets when big money is involved. To juggle taxes, I suspect. They're quite onerous in UK.

I co-wrote a song in 1968 that's still recorded today, and I get half the mechanical and digital royalties directly. But we're talking $100, not $100 million.

Now of course I'll have to google this Dick James character. Why the devil would JPGR and Brian cut him in on a fortune to which he made no contribution?

[edit]OMG! What a convoluted mess. It all started so above-board, and ended in corporate subterfuge contributed to by no less than the Beatles themselves. At one point, the boys were close to reacquiring the rights to their own songs. But it took the resources of investors at that point. Who were all in favor, until Lennon mouthed off. (When has THAT ever happened before?)

Correcting myself, taxes may have been a consideration, but really, James had business skills nobody else in the chain had. Not JPGR, not Brian, not even George Martin. James DID contribute. At the time, they felt like they needed him more than he needed them. That's how he got 50% and the principals divided the rest. If they'd only waited a year, they would have known better and given such a manager 15% tops. It was that 50% and where it went from there (ATC/Lew Grade) that made it beyond the reach of the boys to buy back their own work. Even though Lew Grade was in favor of them regaining control.

Here's the link to how the Beatles lost control of themselves: http://www.ptrob.com/Music/Beatles/Song_Rights/song_rights.html

I hate to distract from the topic at hand, but I felt the need to voice my opinion:

I'm 13, and like many others, I became an MJ fan the minute I heard he died. (Guiltily, I admit it...) I listened to quite a few of his songs, and my favorite of his changed frequently. But the one song that kept finding its way to being my favorite again was "Say Say Say," a duet with MJ and Paul. (Which all of you probably knew.) After listening to it a few hundred times, I decided to edge off and take a look at what the Beatles were like. I'd heard a few of their songs before: Hello Goodbye, Octopus's Garden, Help!, Yellow Submarine, and Twist & Shout. I grew up listening to these songs when I was younger. When I figured out those songs were all by one band, I had to research them and listen to more. Pretty soon, I had lost interest in MJ and become absolutely OBSESSED with the Beatles.

So I think MJ may have had something to do with this sudden uprising of "Beatles awareness," so to speak.

And let's not forget, after MJ had sung "Say Say Say" with Paul, he got the idea of buying the rights to the Beatles. MJ was the one that agreed to create Beatles Rock Band, if I'm not mistaken...

Just a thought. (:

"Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt... ZAP!!" :D