John Fogerty has lastly gained worldwide management of his Creedence Clearwater Revival publishing rights, placing to mattress one of many longest, nastiest battles in music business historical past.
Fogerty’s authorized woes started practically 60 years in the past when CCR signed to Fantasy Information, which movie producer and report firm government Saul Zaentz purchased in 1967. Fogerty got here to see the phrases of the deal as unfair and tried for years to extricate himself from Fantasy Information.
To get out of the deal, Fogerty relinquished his royalties to Zaentz in 1980 and didn’t see a cost from them for many years. Zaentz famously sued the rocker for self-plagiarism, claiming Fogerty’s 1985 solo hit “The Previous Man Down the Street” ripped off CCR’s “Run By means of the Jungle.” (Fogerty gained the case.)
Now, the embattled CCR chief can lastly get pleasure from a little bit of peace and satisfaction. Fogerty not too long ago purchased a majority curiosity within the international publishing rights to his CCR catalog from Harmony for an undisclosed sum, Billboard reported. Harmony purchased Fantasy Information again in 2004 and rapidly reinstated and elevated Fogerty’s royalties. The corporate nonetheless owns CCR’s grasp recordings and can proceed to pay out Fogerty’s share of the publishing.
“Behind my thoughts, I wished to personal my songs – my kids, you may say,” Fogerty instructed UCR in 2021. “I’m speaking about proudly owning the songs themselves, the publishing, however I spotted that I had been lied to by Saul and I wasn’t going to get to personal them. He wasn’t going to permit me to personal them.”
The rocker confessed he by no means thought he’d see the day he gained management of his publishing. “The happiest means to take a look at it’s, yeah, it isn’t every part,” he instructed Billboard. “It’s not a 100% win for me, but it surely’s positive higher than it was. I’m actually form of nonetheless in shock. I haven’t allowed my mind to actually, truly, begin feeling it but.”
Fogerty’s newest campaign to get hold of his publishing rights started when he and his spouse and supervisor, Julie Fogerty, realized that the rights to his songs would begin reverting to him in just a few years, per U.S. copyright regulation. Quite than wait these previous couple of years, Julie prompt to Harmony that her husband purchase the songs again from them. The corporate initially declined, however after looping in music business mogul and Fogerty’s former supervisor Irving Azoff, each events struck a deal.
Lastly, Fogerty has achieved what he by no means might with the late Zaentz. For a lot of the ‘80s, Fogerty refused to play his CCR songs stay as a result of he couldn’t abdomen the thought of Zaentz profiting off his performances. He now excursions along with his two sons and instructed Billboard, “Taking part in is extra joyful now than in any time in my life.”
The rocker’s victory comes at a time when a lot of his friends are doing the precise reverse and promoting their catalogs for enormous, nine-figure paydays. Bruce Springsteen bought his masters and publishing catalog for a reported $500 million in late 2021, the identical 12 months that Sony Music acquired the rights to Bob Dylan’s grasp recordings in a deal estimated to be value $200 or extra.
Fogerty, now 77, added that he would like to ultimately personal the CCR masters, however he’s “not actively sitting round worrying about that. The truth that I didn’t personal my very own songs was far more bothersome to me due to the remedy that I acquired.”
Rockers Who Have Bought Their Publishing Rights
As track placement has turn into commonplace and gross sales have decreased because of streaming, many basic rockers have offloaded their publishing rights.
