John Fogerty Regains Control Over Creedence Clearwater Revival Songs After Half-Century Fight: Exclusive

"I'm really kind of still in shock," says the iconic rocker after buying a majority interest in the global publishing rights to his CCR song catalog from Concord.


Little, Brown and Company

By Melinda Newman
1/12/2023

www.billboard.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-03-09 23:14 by bv.

Well deserved

__________________________

Great story and well deserved! Happy for John.


Would be great if our band got some kind of controll back over their songs.

this is great news

much deserved

Great story, congrats John! I remember when Centerfield was released, original copies had the song Zanz Can't Dance. I believe under threat of lawsuit from Saul Zaentz he changed the song to Vanz Can't Dance. Not sure if those original copies are worth anything?

Quote
DGA35
Great story, congrats John! I remember when Centerfield was released, original copies had the song Zanz Can't Dance. I believe under threat of lawsuit from Saul Zaentz he changed the song to Vanz Can't Dance. Not sure if those original copies are worth anything?

I'd be interested in that too as I think I have a copy!

Congrats to him. He's been fighting this battle forever and has done well despite it, but glad to see at almost 80 things are finally settling out the way they always should have been.

Very nice to hear. It's a very important catalogue as well. Just compare top 10 most Streamed (Spotify) with our gang:

CCR

1 Have You Ever Seen The Rain 960,508,875
2 Fortunate Son 893,287,215
3 Bad Moon Rising 561,281,360
4 Down On The Corner 301,312,638
5 Proud Mary 218,826,033
6 Up Around The Bend 208,371,872
7 Lookin' Out My Back Door 176,165,758
8 Who'll Stop The Rain 149,258,047
9 Green River 126,589,771
10 Run Through The Jungle 114,109,993

RS

1 Paint It, Black 824,141,789
2 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 556,908,652
3 Start Me Up 468,174,300
4 Gimme Shelter 466,680,252
5 Sympathy For The Devil 461,324,223
6 Beast Of Burden 335,605,794
7 Angie 279,360,584
8 Wild Horses 216,355,955
9 Brown Sugar 203,220,522
10 Miss You 152,676,971

Great news, but man what has he done with his face??

Mathijs

Quote
DGA35
Great story, congrats John! I remember when Centerfield was released, original copies had the song Zanz Can't Dance. I believe under threat of lawsuit from Saul Zaentz he changed the song to Vanz Can't Dance. Not sure if those original copies are worth anything?

Mine says "zans". So I'm rich now?

Great album by the way. I absolutely love "The old Man down the Road".

Zaentz sounds like Allen Klein. Why can't the Stones do the same? How are the situations the same or different from Fogerty to the Stones?


plexi

Quote
timbernardis

Why can't the Stones do the same?

Maybe too expensive & too much effort. Paul McCartney is trying for years to get back the ownership of the Beatles' publishing catalogue, with yet little success - [www.Forbes.com] , [www.Billboard.com] .

Quote
timbernardis
Zaentz sounds like Allen Klein. Why can't the Stones do the same? How are the situations the same or different from Fogerty to the Stones?


plexi

Simply because it takes two to tango! As far as I am aware there have indeed been talks (still are?). But it's always about money. In case ABKCO asks a ridiculous price (=considerably more than the catalog's worth) it simply does not make sense, no matter if the Stones could afford it or not. Pride alone only goes so far, you know.

Glad for him!

Seemingly he would had the publishing rights for US market in a few years (the 56 years rule), but with this deal he now got the majority percentage of whole world rights at the same token.

But Concord still owns the masters. How is that part going on in regard to The Stones and ABKCO? The Stones hold the masters but ABKCO has rights for them, or what? Hmm.. I guess no, ABKCO needs to have them in their whole legal and physical possession, since they are able to release any kind of new editions of already published stuff without the permission or involvement by the the Stones, right? But the Stones have the original session tapes I suppose (from where they discovered stuff for EXILE bonus album and CROSSFIRE HURRICANE, etc).

- Doxa



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2023-01-13 15:16 by Doxa.

I have one of those copies. They were removing them from the shelves and I already had one in hand.

Quote
DGA35
Great story, congrats John! I remember when Centerfield was released, original copies had the song Zanz Can't Dance. I believe under threat of lawsuit from Saul Zaentz he changed the song to Vanz Can't Dance. Not sure if those original copies are worth anything?

Quote
ribbelchips

Quote
DGA35
Great story, congrats John! I remember when Centerfield was released, original copies had the song Zanz Can't Dance. I believe under threat of lawsuit from Saul Zaentz he changed the song to Vanz Can't Dance. Not sure if those original copies are worth anything?

Mine says "zans". So I'm rich now?

Great album by the way. I absolutely love "The old Man down the Road".

Unfortunately it appears it went gold before they made the change so there are a ton of them out there so not really all that rare or worth that much.

Quote
Irix

Quote
timbernardis

Why can't the Stones do the same?

Maybe too expensive & too much effort. Paul McCartney is trying for years to get back the ownership of the Beatles' publishing catalogue, with yet little success - [www.Forbes.com] , [www.Billboard.com] .

Billboard says when Michael Jackson bought ATV music he got publishing rights not only for The Beatles catalog but altogether for some 4000 songs, including some from The Rolling Stones. What's that?! What songs?

- Doxa

Quote
Doxa

What's that?! What songs?

At least no typo. ATV is now Sony Music Publishing - "the world's No.1 music publisher and home to the world’s best songwriters, with classic catalogues including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones" :

[www.SonyMusicPub.com]

Quote
Doxa

Quote
Irix

Quote
timbernardis

Why can't the Stones do the same?

Maybe too expensive & too much effort. Paul McCartney is trying for years to get back the ownership of the Beatles' publishing catalogue, with yet little success - [www.Forbes.com] , [www.Billboard.com] .

Billboard says when Michael Jackson bought ATV music he got publishing rights not only for The Beatles catalog but altogether for some 4000 songs, including some from The Rolling Stones. What's that?! What songs?

- Doxa

I Wanna Be Your Man

Quote
treaclefingers

I Wanna Be Your Man

Written by Lennon–McCartney. Music publishing is about composition/lyrics - not sound recordings/performance.

In 2013: "BMG today announced the rights management company will represent the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ post-1983 music publishing catalog. ABKCO, however, still owns the 1963-1971 Stones’ catalog and EMI Music Publishing owns the 1971-1983 catalog." - [www.Billboard.com] . And in 2018: "Sony is paying $2.3 billion to take control of EMI Music Publishing, cementing its place as the world’s largest music publishing company" - [www.TheGuardian.com] .

Quote
Irix

Quote
treaclefingers

I Wanna Be Your Man

Written by Lennon–McCartney. Music publishing is about composition/lyrics - not sound recordings/performance.

Damn you for your accuracy and attention to detail!

Quote
ribbelchips

Quote
DGA35
Great story, congrats John! I remember when Centerfield was released, original copies had the song Zanz Can't Dance. I believe under threat of lawsuit from Saul Zaentz he changed the song to Vanz Can't Dance. Not sure if those original copies are worth anything?

Mine says "zans". So I'm rich now?

Great album by the way. I absolutely love "The old Man down the Road".

It is a great album, Centerfield, Rock'n'Roll Girls, Old Man... Introduced him to a whole new generation of audience!

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer John Fogerty gets his music rights back

Legendary singer-songwriter John Fogerty got his music rights after a five-decade long battle. NBC News’ Anne Thompson shares more about his journey to get his songs back.

Jan. 13, 2023

[www.nbcnews.com]

If I'm not mistaken, in 1974 Fogerty signed over his Creedence publishing to Zaentz as part of a deal so that he could be released from his contract with Fantasy Records.

That was a not a wise move.

Quote
loog droog
If I'm not mistaken, in 1974 Fogerty signed over his Creedence publishing to Zaentz as part of a deal so that he could be released from his contract with Fantasy Records.

That was a not a wise move.

In hindsight it's easy to say that, but as I see it, Fogerty was trying to correct a mistake he made much earlier - the CCR recording contract with Fantasy that obviously was also binding for him as a solo artist.

When it comes to contracts, as a musician you make the most serious mistakes when you're young, inexperienced and still unknown - you sign almost everything just to "get a deal". You only realize this once you've made it, when your records sell and the career takes off. But when this happens, to get out of ill-advised contracts hurts even more - and sometimes leads directly to your next big mistake - see Fogerty.

Quote
Mathijs
Great news, but man what has he done with his face??

Mathijs

Maybe a mite too much plastic surgery?

~"Love is Strong"~

Quote
Mathijs
Great news, but man what has he done with his face??

Mathijs

You're a strange bird. What about your face?

That photo is the cover shot of Fogerty's 2015 autobiography "Fortunate Son". Perhaps some trickeration was applied.

Watch the NBC interview above to see the untrickerated John Fogerty, January 2023.

Sadly, and with no shortage of irony here, Fogarty caused no less pain to his brother and bandmates than Zaentz inflicted on him(for his earlier mistake). While Fogarty lost millions on songwriter royalties, the band lost concert revenue and artist royalties, had they continued. JF did get wealthy non the less from his songwriter share per his legal entitlements.