# How did Michael Jackson get rights to the Beatles tunes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-michael-jackson-get-rights-to-the-beatles-tunes/90612 "2001-10-30T21:58:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-michael-jackson-get-rights-to-the-beatles-tunes/90612/1 "2001-10-30T21:58:23Z")
It’s pretty obvious McCartney is still bitter about how MJ overbid him to get rights to the Beatles tunes. Can’t blame him, really, seeing how McCartney _wrote_ most of the songs. My question is, how was he ever in a position to have to buy back his own music? Shouldn’t he have owned them as the (partial) creator of them? 😕 How did the music publishing house get these rights? And what kind of scam are they running that they should they make a bloody fortune on the talent of someone else? It’s akin to Picasso having to pay an art reproduction company for the rights to his own paintings… (As a side note, did you read where McCartney said Yoko was after HIM first. :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-michael-jackson-get-rights-to-the-beatles-tunes/90612/2 "2001-10-30T22:05:05Z")
I hate smilies. I meant :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-michael-jackson-get-rights-to-the-beatles-tunes/90612/3 "2001-10-30T22:07:39Z")
Funny you should ask … we went over this a couple of days ago. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=95837](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=95837) There’s a link there that goes over the history of the Beatles’ publishing company. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-michael-jackson-get-rights-to-the-beatles-tunes/90612/4 "2001-10-31T02:41:49Z")
Since this has been discussed so recently, I’ll close this thread and direct any further comments to the earlier thread, linked to above. bibliophage moderator GQ