Paul Anka Gets This is It Royalties and Co-writer Credit

Posted on October 14, 2009

The Wall Street Journal reports that songwriter Paul Anka will be getting 50% of the songwriting royalties from "This Is It" as well as a co-writer credit. Paul Anka co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson 26 years ago but he wasn't listed as one of the writers when Michael Jackson's song was released posthumously on Monday. Paul Anka says he believes the omission was an honest mistake.

When the song was first released to radio stations and online by Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment, Mr. Jackson was listed as the only writer. Critics and Mr. Anka himself quickly complained that the song was indistinguishable from one the men wrote together 26 years ago.
"This Is It" is to be featured on the soundtrack to the coming documentary that features the late superstar, but its genesis was actually in 1983 when it was written for a duets album that Mr. Anka was recording.
The song was then titled "I Never Heard," and Messrs. Jackson and Anka are credited as co-authors on an early 1990s version recorded by a singer named Safire.
"They did the right thing," Mr. Anka, 68 years old, said Tuesday. "I don't think that anybody tried to do the wrong thing. It was an honest mistake."

You can hear the song on MichaelJackson.com.