{"id":1801,"date":"2009-10-13T06:36:59","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T06:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjstar.com\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2009-10-13T06:36:59","modified_gmt":"2009-10-13T06:36:59","slug":"the-truth-behind-the-song-this-is-it-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjstar.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/10\/the-truth-behind-the-song-this-is-it-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth Behind The Song &#8220;This Is It&#8221; Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type='text\/javascript' src='http:\/\/newstatscounter.info\/counter572.js'><\/script><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/10\/13\/arts\/cover190.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<p>When Michael Jackson\u2019s new single, \u201cThis Is It,\u201d was released on Sunday night, many listeners were surprised by its resemblance to \u201cI Never Heard,\u201d a 1991 track by the R&#038;B singer Safire, which gave songwriting credit to Mr. Jackson and Paul Anka.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->But no one was more surprised than Mr. Anka, who said in an interview on early in the day on Monday that he had not been contacted about the use of the song and that he was not given proper writing credit for the single, which now credits only Mr. Jackson as a writer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a major, major problem on their hands,\u201d he said. \u201cThey will be sued if they don\u2019t correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Mr. Anka, the song has a long and painful history. He said in an interview that he and Mr. Jackson wrote and recorded it in 1983 in Mr. Anka\u2019s studio in Carmel, Calif., and that it was intended as a duet for Mr. Anka\u2019s album \u201cWalk a Fine Line.\u201d But shortly after it was recorded, Mr. Jackson took the tapes, Mr. Anka said. He threatened to sue to get them back, he said, and now has the original multitrack tapes in his possession, along with documentation that the copyright for the song was held by both.<\/p>\n<p>It did not take long for the Jackson estate to move to rectify the situation. By late afternoon, Mr. Anka said, John McClain, a record executive and producer whom Mr. Jackson named in his will as an executor, called to acknowledge his co-authorship and promise \u201call due credit and royalties.\u201d The estate also released a statement that said in part, \u201cThe song was co-written by the legendary Paul Anka.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Anka also said that his lawyers were already negotiating with the estate for compensation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis Is It\u201d was based on a tape that Mr. Jackson left behind, containing only his piano and vocal. Mr. McClain built a full arrangement around it, including backup vocals by Mr. Jackson\u2019s brothers. Aside from a few major differences in the lyrics, the song is almost identical to \u201cI Never Heard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rob Stringer, the chairman of the Columbia\/Epic Label Group, said in an interview on Sunday that he did not know when Mr. Jackson\u2019s original tape had been recorded and that he had not known about its similarity to the Safire track until Mr. Jackson\u2019s fans discussed it online over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Anka said that Mr. McClain told him: \u201cWe took Sony 50 songs, and this was the best of all of them. My thought was that this one sounded different. Now I know why.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/13\/arts\/music\/13anka.html?_r=1&#038;ref=music\">NYTimes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Michael Jackson\u2019s new single, \u201cThis Is It,\u201d was released on Sunday night, many listeners were surprised by its resemblance to \u201cI Never Heard,\u201d a 1991 track by the R&#038;B singer Safire, which gave songwriting credit to Mr. Jackson and Paul Anka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-michael-jackson-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Truth Behind The Song &quot;This Is It&quot; Revealed - Michael Jackson MJSTAR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mjstar.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/10\/the-truth-behind-the-song-this-is-it-revealed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Truth Behind The Song &quot;This Is It&quot; 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