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Michael Jackson · S5 E1
The Beatles Catalog
How Michael outmaneuvered everyone and bought the ATV publishing
December 1981. Paul McCartney pulls out a thick book in his London studio and shows his young collaborator every song he owns the publishing rights to, not knowing he's handing Michael Jackson the blueprint for the greatest business move in music history.
Say Say Say, Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson (1983). The last great artifact of their friendship. McCartney and Jackson play traveling con artists in a buddy-comedy music video directed by Bob Giraldi. Within two years, the real hustle will land very differently.
Say Say Say, Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson (1983)
Recorded at AIR Studios in London during the same sessions that produced "The Girl Is Mine," "Say Say Say" became the bigger hit of their two collaborations. Paul handles most of the verses in his signature melodic style, but Michael's ad-libs on the chorus push the track into genuine pop excitement. The production is distinctly early-80s McCartney: polished, warm, slightly safe. It hit number one in the US and stayed there for six weeks.
Sources
Pipes of Peace album credits, Parlophone/Columbia Records, 1983
Billboard Hot 100 chart history, 1983
The Student Surpasses the Teacher
Paul's publishing lesson lands harder than either of them realizes. Michael starts calling his entertainment lawyer John Branca with a new obsession: find him song catalogs to buy. Branca gets him the Sly Stone catalog first, then portions of Len Barry and Dion DiMucci's publishing. Michael treats each acquisition like a collector adding rare art to a vault.
Sources
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2009
Hayvenhurst Estate, Encino, California
The Jackson family compound where Michael was living when John Branca called about the ATV catalog. Michael's instruction from this house was simple and immediate: get it for me.
The ATV Catalog by the Numbers
The Deal
In September 1984, John Branca gets a tip: Robert Holmes à Court might be willing to sell ATV Music Publishing. The catalog is the crown jewel of music publishing, and Branca knows it. He calls Michael, who replies instantly: "Get it for me." Over the next ten months, Branca navigates a brutal negotiation against competing bids from CBS Records, Marty Bandier, and Charles Koppelman, closing the deal for $47.5 million in August 1985.
Sources
Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson, Randall Sullivan, 2012
Michael Jackson, Inc., Zack O'Malley Greenburg, 2014
TAP TO REVEAL: Why didn't Paul McCartney buy the Beatles catalog himself?
Come Together, Michael Jackson (1995)
Michael's cover of the Beatles classic first appeared in his 1988 film Moonwalker before landing on the HIStory album. There's something almost too perfect about it: Michael Jackson performing a Lennon-McCartney song that he literally owns the publishing rights to. His version is darker and more aggressive than the original, stripped of the Beatles' psychedelic warmth and rebuilt as a tense, industrial groove.
Come Together, Michael Jackson (1995)
Lennon's original lyrics were intentionally nonsensical, partly written to settle a lawsuit from Chuck Berry's publisher over similarities to "You Can't Catch Me." In Michael's hands, lines like "he got joo joo eyeball" take on a different energy entirely. The words feel less playful and more confrontational, matching the harder production.
In 1995, Michael merged the ATV catalog with Sony's publishing arm. What was the estimated value of his half when Sony bought it in 2016?
Michael has conquered music, television, and now the boardroom. Next, a Pepsi commercial shoot goes catastrophically wrong, and the painkillers that follow will change Michael Jackson forever.
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