Northern Songs Ltd. is a company founded in
1963 by
music publisher Dick James,
Brian
Epstein, and
The Beatles to publish
songs written by
John Lennon and
Paul McCartney (see
Lennon/McCartney).
George Martin, the Beatles'
producer, was offered a partnership in the
company but turned it down, since his position at
EMI made it a potential
conflict of interest.
Foundation and early history
Producer Martin directed Epstein to find a good publisher—as EMI's
Ardmore & Beechwood publishing company had done nothing to
promote "Love Me Do"—telling Epstein about three publishers who, in
Martin's opinion, would be fair and honest, which led Epstein to
James. McCartney admitted that they signed all the contracts
Epstein presented to them without reading them first, and Lennon
added, "We had complete faith in him when he was running us. To us,
he was the expert".
Along with
Lennon's and McCartney's songs (published in the U.S.
by Maclen Music, named
for McCartney and Lennon), Northern Songs published George Harrison's early compositions, and
Ringo Starr was also signed as a
songwriter. Both Northern Songs and Maclen Music were
administered by
Dick James Music.
When the initial contracts expired, Lennon and McCartney renewed,
while Harrison instead started his own company,
Harrisongs Ltd., and Starr his own, called
Startling Music.
In a novel move, during 1965 it was decided to "take the company
public" to save on
capital gains
tax, and Northern Songs was reorganised as a
public company, with Lennon and McCartney
each owning 15%, Beatles manager Epstein's company, NEMS, assigned
a 7.5% interest, James and partner Charles Silver (who served as
Northern Songs' chairman) retaining a total of 37.5% of the
ownership, and Harrison and Starr together owning about 1.6%. The
rest traded on the
London Stock
Exchange.
Harrison wrote "
Only a Northern
Song", the title a play on the song's origins, to appear on the
Sgt.
Pepper album; the
lyrics express in part his disappointment with his publishing
contract and with the company's handling of his songs. The song was
left out of the album, later appearing in the Beatles' animated
feature,
1968's
Yellow Submarine and its
soundtrack.
Publishing rights
After Epstein died, Lennon and McCartney sought to renegotiate
their publishing deal with James. In 1968 they invited James for a
meeting at Apple Records. They tried to film the meeting with
James, and were rather brusque with him. Already-cool relations
between James and the Beatles became even cooler. Early in 1969,
James and Silver abruptly sold their shares in Northern Songs to
Britain's
Associated
TeleVision (ATV), giving the Beatles no notice, or the chance
to buy them out. (Lennon learned of the sale from a morning
newspaper during his honeymoon with
Yoko
Ono, and immediately called McCartney). Lennon and McCartney,
upset that the songs they had written were not theirs legally,
attempted to gain ownership of the publishing rights. Their bid to
gain control, part of a long and acrimonious fight, failed. The
financial clout of
Lew Grade, their
adversary in the bidding war, ensured that the music written by the
two Beatles passed into the control of ATV.
Allen Klein attempted to set up a deal
with ATV for
Apple Corps to buy ATV out.
This was spoiled by attorney
John
Eastman (McCartney's brother-in-law, and son of his future
business manager Lee Eastman) sending a letter to ATV informing
them that Klein wasn't authorised to act on Apple's behalf. (This
was technically true, but he was the
de
facto manager for Lennon, Harrison and Starr, and also had
McCartney's verbal go-ahead for the deal.) ATV backed out rather
than risk being pulled into litigation.
Next, a block of investors who owned a small but crucial percentage
of shares was lobbied by both sides to sell out or cooperate with
them ultimately to take control of Northern Songs.
During negotiations,
Lennon made an understandable, but ill-timed and poorly worded,
comment expressing his disdain for businessmen trying to influence
his creative output — "I'm sick to death of being fucked about by
men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the City
!" — which threw the investors to ATV's
side.
Under their
publishing contract
with Northern Songs, Lennon and McCartney were legally bound to
continue their songwriting until 1973. The simplest way out, if
they couldn't gain control, was to also sell out to ATV, while
keeping the writer's
royalties from their
contracted songs. Lennon and McCartney sold their stock (Lennon his
15%, McCartney's portion slightly higher, since he himself bought
additional shares) in October 1969 for £3.5 million. Harrison and
Starr chose to keep their shares.
ATV held its controlling interest in Northern Songs until 1985,
when
ATV Music went up for sale.
Outbidding McCartney (who'd tried unsuccessfully to persuade
Yoko Ono to join him) was singer
Michael Jackson, who won the bidding for a
reported $47 million. The recent friendship and collaboration with
McCartney and Jackson ended suddenly as a result. It turned out Ono
had actually encouraged Jackson to buy the shares, telling the
press after the sale, "I just feel like a friend has them." When
asked how he felt about having Jackson as his "boss", as controller
of the song catalogue, McCartney replied, "I think he needs to give
me a raise." McCartney reportedly did ask Jackson for a royalty
increase but was turned down, further cooling their
relationship.
In 1995, Jackson merged his catalogue with
Sony Music's publishing, for a reported $95
million, establishing
Sony/ATV
Music Publishing, in which he retained half-ownership. In April
2006 a package was proposed whereby, Jackson would borrow $300
million and reduce the interest rate payable on a loan he had,
while giving Sony the future option to buy half of Jackson's stake
in their jointly-owned publishing company (leaving Jackson with a
25% stake). Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal,
although the finalised details were not made public. McCartney's
MPL Communications later
succeeded in acquiring the publishing rights to "
Love Me Do", "
Please Please Me", "
P.S. I Love You" and "
Ask Me Why", from EMI, which were published by
Ardmore and Beechwood, one of
EMI's publishing
companies, prior to Lennon and McCartney signing with Dick
James.
See also
Notes
- Spitz (2005). The Beatles: The Biography, p364
- Miles (1997). Many Years From Now, p146
- McCabe and Schonfeld (1984). For the Record, p90
- Guest (2006). The Trials of Michael Jackson, p. 8
- Miles (1992) Many Years From Now, p. 37.
References
- The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles,
by Peter Brown
(McGraw-Hill, 1983)
- John Lennon: One Day at a Time, by Anthony Fawcett (Grove Press, 1976)
- Shout! The Beatles in their Generation, by
Philip Norman (Warner Books,
1982)
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