On the first day of 1983, the #3 single in America was the Jackson-written “The Girl Is Mine,” the first single from the just-released album Thriller. And 1983, the year that Jackson truly took over, was bookended by two McCartney collaborations. Right around the time the Beatles were breaking up, Jackson and his brothers emerged as a dominant chart force. McCartney showed up to make American teenagers scream a few months after one American president was shot dead, while Jackson hit his vertiginous career peak a couple of years after another American president survived a gunshot. There’s something cosmically appropriate about McCartney and Jackson aligning when they did. Maybe that’s how we see our pop stars in real life, too.

(LaToya’s highest-charting single, 1984’s “Heart Don’t Lie,” peaked at #56.) We’re invited to admire these two charming-rogue conmen, who keep people happy in desperate circumstances even as they’re taking their money. Jackson flirts with his sister LaToya, which is even weirder than the blackface moment that’s in there for some reason. McCartney’s wife Linda comes along with them, yelling “fire” in a crowded theater to help them escape the cops. Instead, director Bob Giraldi, previously responsible for Jackson’s classic “ Beat It” video, shows them as a happy, idealized ersatz-family unit. McCartney and Jackson aren’t the villains of the “Say Say Say” video. The symbolism practically hammers you over the head: Two grinning masters of the form, sidling right up to you and showing you exactly how they’re taking advantage of your affection. In some depression-era dustbowl, McCartney and Jackson blow into town, putting on a show for the yokels, taking their money, and then escaping. In the video for their duet “Say Say Say,” Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, arguably the two most successful pop musicians of all time, play literal vaudeville clowns and snake-oil salesmen. It feels like the moonwalk master bought the rights to those songs out of respect for his friend.In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. In 2017, McCartney finally regained the Beatles’ song catalog, right before his 75th birthday.ĭid McCartney have a right to be mad at Jackson? I personally don’t think so. By 2016, Sony finally agreed to pay out $750 million to buy out half of Sony/ATV, which was owned by the Jackson Estate, even after Jackson’s death in 2009, ending the fight between Jackson and McCartney. McCartney, already feeling betrayed initially, saw a chance to get the publishing rights of his songs back. Then, in 2006, facing a potential bankruptcy, Jackson agreed to sell half of his ownership back to Sony/ATV. The trouble is I wrote those songs for nothing and buying them back at these phenomenal sums, I just can’t do it.” McCartney, clearly upset that the pop star was profiting off his own songs, said in 2001, “He won’t even answer my letters, so we haven’t talked and we don’t have that great a relationship. Jackson actually jokingly replied, “One day, I’ll own your songs.” Paul McCartney Reflects On His Feud With Michael Jackson Over The Beatles Catalog

Since he wasn’t making any money from Beatles’ songs, he started buying the publishing rights from other artists, such as the late Buddy Holly. McCartney had started to dabble in it after losing his stake in Northern Songs, the publishing company that he and former bandmate John Lennon had set back in the late 60s. Since Jackson was his friend, McCartney decided to offer some advice about getting into music publishing. Nevertheless, the two became friends, resulting in duet collaborations that created “Say Say Say,” the lead single on McCartney’s Pipes of Peace album, “The Man,” and “The Girl Is Mine,” which hit the No. McCartney had offered Jackson the chance to buy “Girlfriend” for his upcoming album, to which McCartney just ended up releasing himself on Wings. The “Thriller” artist and McCartney used to have a wonderful musical friendship that began in the 70s when they started to talk business. Back on August 14, 1985, Jackson paid $47.5 million to own the Beatles catalog, containing the publishing rights to 251 songs by The Beatles. An interesting feud actually ensued between the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, but debating on who was actually in the wrong here may seem more complicated than it actually is.

Paul mccartney and michael jackson