No lawsuit over Beatles credits

[shyGirl]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2583137.stm

Sir Paul McCartney will not be sued by Yoko Ono over the Beatles' songwriting credit, despite press reports to the contrary, her lawyer has told BBC News Online.


Ono was reported to be considering legal action after Sir Paul reversed the traditional "Lennon-McCartney" credit on a new live album.

But Ono's lawyer Peter Shukat said: "I don't think anybody ever said Yoko was going to sue Paul."

He declined to comment further.

Earlier, Sir Paul's spokesman Geoff Baker dismissed reports of possible legal action.

"Have we had any legal letters? Absolutely not, it's not true. I don't know whether she [Ono] is happy about it or not, but there can't be any legal action."

Ono and McCartney both have an equal share in Apple Records, Mr Baker said, and one member would not sue another.

Sir Paul decided to switch the names for the 19 Beatles songs on his new album Back in the US to rectify the historical imbalance, Mr Baker said.

Sir Paul and Lennon agreed in 1962 that the names could be arranged in any order, Mr Baker said.

"It's not demeaning John, it's not taking anything away from John, it's merely pointing out who did the body of work on certain songs, just so people know."

Back in the US, released in November, was recorded on Sir Paul's recent US tour and the Beatles songs are credited to "Paul McCartney and John Lennon".

The Los Angeles Times had quoted Mr Shukat, as saying Sir Paul's move was "ridiculous, absurd and petty".

Lennon tribute

The paper also said Ono was "looking into" legal action.

Sir Paul has switched the credits before, on a 1976 Wings live album, but left the traditional order in place on a later concert recording.

The Back in the US album also includes a song Sir Paul wrote in tribute to Lennon, Here Today, which he says reminds him "why we loved each other so much in the Beatles".

The double-CD set went to number eight in the US charts, and the tour was one of the most successful of the year, making more than $2m (£1.25m) per show.

[AmericanBeatle]

That is certainly great news, Shygirl. I appreciate your taking the time to share with the rest of us.
graemlins/smile2.gif

[mojolawoman]

thank you so much for posting this! i have been wondering what all the fuss was about!

[LuvLennon]

Well it it good to hear that there is not about to be another Paul/Yoko argument to widen that rift in their relationship that the media is always bringing up...though I'm sure some papers would love there to be! I also wondered what all the fuss was about over the order of Lennon and McCartney, in fact it would been more interesting when the original albums were made to have assigned songwriting credit to John or Paul or both if they both contributed equally, rather than having just the generic Lennon/McCartney tag

[Blackguard]

Very good news. Nice to see Paul and Yoko give peace a chance.

[beatlegirl9977]

You know... I was just looking at the back cover of the Please Please Me CD... and all the Beatle songs are credited "McCartney/Lennon" on that one.

Good to hear, though, that there won't be any huge legal battle over this issue...

[kc]

Glad to hear this...the last thing we need is another Beatles-related lawsuit. We've had the "Sue Me, Sue You Blues" for too long now, anyroad.

[HMVNipper]

Here is the Associated Press take on the story:

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUSIC_BEATLES_BATTLE?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT

Dec 18, 10:05 AM EST

McCartney Switches Beatles Writing Credit

By LARRY McSHANE
Associated Press Writer


NEW YORK (AP) -- Paul McCartney believes the last shall be first. Yoko Ono believes he wants to rewrite history.

McCartney, after 40 years of second billing to his late partner John Lennon, has turned the tables on his Beatles collaborator by reversing the order of the famous Lennon-McCartney songwriting credit.

On Paul's last project, a two-CD live album, the cute Beatle is now top dog.

"Back in the U.S. Live 2002" includes 19 classic Beatles songs billed as written by "Paul McCartney and John Lennon."

The back-and-forth continues a nasty feud between McCartney and Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who in the past accused the Beatles bassist of "opening a Pandora's box" by changing the credits.

"This is not a divisive thing," insisted McCartney spokesman Geoff Baker in London. "It's not Lennon or McCartney. Even if Paul did 95 percent or more on these songs, he's not asking that John's name be taken off.

"He just doesn't think it should be first."

Ono's spokesman, Elliott Mintz, disagreed.

"There's no question this is an attempted act of Beatle revisionism," Mintz said Tuesday. "And it does appear to be an attempt to rewrite history."

Mintz said that Ono had no plans to sue McCartney over the swap and was "feeling secure in the fact that the original Lennon-McCartney agreement still stands."

This particular intra-Beatles spat - one of many since the megaband dissolved in 1970 - dates back seven years, although it started with "Yesterday."

When the surviving members of the Fab Four began releasing their acclaimed "Anthology" series in 1995, McCartney approached Ono about flipping the Lennon-McCartney credit for the hit single.

Ono, the guardian of the Lennon legacy since her husband's 1980 murder by a deranged fan, turned him down. She and her attorney did not return calls seeking comment.

"It actually is one of the reasons we're not the best of friends," McCartney confessed in an interview with Reader's Digest last year.

No one disputes that McCartney wrote "Yesterday" by himself, or that he was the only Beatle in the studio for its recording. The tale of McCartney's waking up one morning with the tune in his head is part of Beatles' lore, as is its working title: "Scrambled Eggs."

Music historians suggest McCartney, now 60, has become worried about his place in history - as if half-ownership of rock 'n' roll's most-revered writing credit was nothing.

It's also a strange thing for McCartney to focus on: songwriting pairs such as Jagger and Richards, Leiber and Stoller, and Rodgers and Hammerstein have lived with their respective slots and the resulting music.

Yet this is not the first time there's been a posthumous feud between the one-time bandmates. When the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, McCartney boycotted over financial disputes.

"I would feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion," McCartney said at the time.

George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John's two sons, Julian and Sean, and Ono wound up accepting for the band.

And though he's a multimillionaire many times over - a spring tour of the United States grossed $53 million - it still irks McCartney that part of his songwriting profits go to Ono.

"At one point, Yoko earned more from `Yesterday' than I did," McCartney complained in a May 2001 interview. "It doesn't compute, especially when it's the only song that none of the Beatles had anything to do with."