In 1985, Paul McCartney watched one of the most valuable song catalogs in music history go to someone he knew very well.
On Aug. 14, 1985, Michael Jackson purchased ATV Music’s publishing catalog for $47.5 million, gaining control of approximately 250 songs written by McCartney and John Lennon for The Beatles.
Jackson wasn’t just another superstar with money to invest. He and McCartney had become friends and collaborators, recording several songs together, including the massive No. 1 hit “Say Say Say.”
And in an extraordinary twist, it was McCartney himself who helped teach Jackson just how valuable music publishing could be.
McCartney and Jackson’s musical partnership began before Jackson released his blockbuster 1982 album Thriller.
The pair recorded “Say Say Say” in 1981 during sessions for McCartney’s Tug of War. They also recorded “The Man,” with both tracks ultimately appearing on McCartney’s 1983 album Pipes of Peace. Meanwhile, the two also teamed up for “The Girl Is Mine,” released as the first single from Thriller.
“The Girl Is Mine” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but “Say Say Say” was even bigger.
Released in October 1983, “Say Say Say” spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100. More than four decades later, it remains McCartney’s most recent No. 1 on the chart, either as a solo artist or as a member of a group.
Behind the scenes, McCartney and Jackson had also developed a friendship. And according to accounts of their time together, one particular conversation would have enormous consequences.
According to Randy Taraborrelli’s 1992 book “Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness,” while Jackson was staying with Paul and Linda McCartney during their recording sessions, McCartney reportedly showed the younger singer a booklet containing songs for which he owned the publishing rights.
McCartney explained that owning publishing meant getting paid when those songs were recorded, played on the radio or performed.
The conversation made an impression. McCartney’s advice reportedly influenced Jackson’s decision to pursue music publishing himself.
Just a few years later, that lesson would come back around in a way McCartney probably hadn’t envisioned.
ATV Music was put up for sale in 1985. Its approximately 4,000-song catalog included roughly 250 Lennon-McCartney compositions, along with songs by other major artists. Jackson ultimately purchased the catalog for $47.5 million.
But the story of how someone else could buy publishing rights to McCartney’s own Beatles songs stretched back much further.
According to Billboard, in 1963, Northern Songs was established to publish music written by members of The Beatles. Lennon and McCartney initially each held a 20 percent stake in the company. When Northern Songs became a public company in 1965, their stakes were reduced to 15 percent apiece.
In 1969, publisher Dick James sold his stake in Northern Songs to ATV Music. Lennon and McCartney tried unsuccessfully to counter the deal before eventually selling their remaining shares in the company.
That left them without an ownership stake in the publishing company controlling their Beatles catalog, although they retained their respective songwriting shares.
So when Jackson made his $47.5 million purchase in 1985, he wasn’t buying the songs directly from McCartney. He was buying ATV and the publishing rights it had acquired years earlier.
The deal nevertheless put the publishing of many of McCartney’s most famous compositions under the control of his former duet partner.
A decade after the purchase, Jackson sold half of ATV to Sony for approximately $100 million. The 1995 deal created Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which Jackson and Sony each owned equally.
Following Jackson’s death in 2009, his share was controlled by his estate. Sony eventually agreed to purchase the estate’s 50 percent stake for $750 million in 2016, giving Sony full ownership of Sony/ATV and its enormous catalog.
McCartney pursued another route to regain rights to songs he had written.
In 2017, he sued Sony/ATV over his effort to reclaim U.S. copyrights to Beatles songs he co-wrote with Lennon under provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act. McCartney and Sony reached a confidential settlement later that year, leaving the details of their agreement undisclosed.
Forty-one years after Jackson’s $47.5 million purchase, the deal remains an extraordinary chapter in Beatles history, made even more remarkable by the fact that McCartney and the man who swooped in on the catalog had been friends, collaborators and No. 1 duet partners just a few years earlier.
Related: ‘One of the Most Important Partnerships in the History of Modern Music’ Began 69 Years Ago Today
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