jamie 🪶

Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday." Michael Jackson owned it. He paid $47.5 million for 251 Beatles songs, and Paul couldn't stop him. The gap came down to one piece of advice Paul gave him. In the video below, McCartney explains how it happened. In the early '80s, they were friends. They recorded "Say Say Say" together. Paul was older and further into his career, so he gave Michael a tip. "I said to him, for a business, you ought to think about music publishing." A few weeks later, Michael started joking about it. "He'd say, 'I'm gonna get your songs, you know. I'm gonna buy your songs.' I thought it was a joke." In 1985, the Beatles catalog went up for sale. Michael's lawyer opened at $30 million. On August 10, 1985, the deal closed at $47.5 million. "Hey Jude." "Let It Be." "Yesterday." All of it was his. Paul: "I think it's dodgy to do something like that. To be someone's friend, and then buy the rug they're standing on." Years later, Paul wrote to him asking for a raise on the songs he wrote himself. Michael's reply: "Oh Paul, that's just business." The case for Jackson: the catalog was on the open market. Paul knew it was for sale and didn't land it. Michael just took his friend's advice more seriously than his friend did. The two never made music together again. Paul kept singing those songs for decades. Michael's company kept collecting the publisher's share. So did Michael Jackson betray his friend, or did Paul just get outplayed by his own advice?