@SomeFinnSpecial - the Finn-ternet

Paul McCartney and Denny Laine wrote Mull of Kintyre, and in 1977 it became the first single to sell 2 million copies in Britain. By 1986 Laine was bankrupt, owing £76,035, and McCartney's company paid him £135,000 for the rest of his share of the song. In the video below, Laine remembers McCartney playing him the chorus at breakfast in Scotland: "I said, well, that's a possible hit." Laine co-founded Wings in 1971 and stayed all 10 years, at first on £70 a week. "Paul had written the chorus, but we wrote the rest of it together, and most of the lyrics were mine," he said. The song spent 9 weeks at No. 1 over Christmas. Laine left Wings in 1981. Asked in 1986 whether McCartney might help with his debts, he laughed: "No, I think he regards all this as part of my training." He died in 2023, after his wife started a GoFundMe for his medical bills. Five months later the Sunday Times named McCartney Britain's first billionaire musician. The case for McCartney: he had the chorus on a 1974 piano demo, and the song is about his own farm. Laine told the bankruptcy court he had been "well off." He bought a £30,000 Ferrari he crashed and a £32,000 boat that ran aground. If the only buyer for your share is your partner, he sets the price. Get a second offer before you sell. So did McCartney bail out a broke bandmate with £135,000, or buy back a Christmas No. 1 cheap from a co-writer who needed cash fast? I post one famous deal like this every day, with who got paid, who got played, and the numbers that never made the poster.

Roger Hodgson wrote most of Supertramp's hits, and for 41 years he and Rick Davies paid the band's bassist, drummer and saxophonist 11.5% each of their songwriting royalties. That came to $100,000 or more a year each. In 2018 Hodgson stopped. In the video below, saxophonist John Helliwell remembers recording Breakfast in America: "We were in there for about six months," and the drum sound took "nearly a week." The deal dates from 1977, when record sales were still paying back the label and the 3 players were broke. The 2 writers kept 27% each. Hodgson left in 1983, and his exit deal kept the split. Helliwell, Dougie Thomson and Bob Siebenberg sued in 2021, and Davies settled. "They did not write a single melody, they did not write a single lyric," Hodgson's lawyer told the jury, and it sided with him in under an hour. In August 2025 an appeals court reversed that. Hodgson has to keep sharing until the songs fall out of copyright. The case for Hodgson: he wrote "Dreamer" at 19 in his mother's house, years before the 3 joined, and they shared equally in record sales and tours. "Supertramp was over," he told the jury. "There was no reason to continue paying." If someone shares their income with you to keep a team together, get the end date in writing, or they can argue it ended with the team. So did Hodgson stop paying for songs only he wrote, or take back money his bandmates were promised as long as the songs earn? I post one famous deal like this every day, with who got paid, who got played, and the numbers that never made the poster.