All language subtitles for ZUBIZARETA 2001

Since popular music became a
global industry, a handful of songs

have outshone, outperformed
and outlasted all the others...

MUSlC: ''Bitter Sweet Symphony''
by The Verve

That song has so much
magic that it's scary.

These songs have sold more copies,
had more cover versions,

and been played more often,
in more places

than any other songs
in the world.

lt has been played 10 million
times on American radio.

10 million times.

l'm going to reveal for the first
time the ten songs

which have earned the most money
for the people who wrote them.

That's a lot of money.

Where's it all gone?

Ten great songs,

each with its own extraordinary
story of how it was created...

l finished the guitar part
and everybody stood up

and cheered and clapped.
That was it.

Behind these songs is the untold
story of music royalties and how

music industry deals have sometimes
made songwriters multi-millionaires

whilst leaving others
fighting for their share in court.

Always happens, every band,
they look round and they notice

that one of them has got a bigger
house than the other ones.

And they think, ''Why them?
A-ha, you wrote the songs.''

Because that is where the money is.

# Cos it's a bittersweet symphony
this life... #

We're at the beginning of a journey
to find the world's richest songs,

the songs that have earned
the most money in royalties.

lndustry analysts have
looked at the available data

and we have compiled a
top ten countdown.

Some of these songs will be
the ones you'll expect.

But there will be big surprises
along the way, as well,

l can promise you that. So let's get
cracking, shall we?

Here's number ten.

This song was written in
California in the 1940s.

lt's one of the oldest songs
on the list.

l first heard it as a child
and have heard it every year since.

l reckon most of us have.

But not so many people know the
unlikely circumstances

in which this
global hit was written.

On a blisteringly hot
day in July 1945,

songwriter Mel Torme drove to
Toluca Lake, near Los Angeles,

to the home of his writing partner,
Bob Wells.

And found a surprise
in the sitting room.

There on the piano stand on a
spiral path is this chestnuts

roasting on a open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose,

Yuletide carols sung by a choir and
folks dressed up like Eskimos.

And eventually, Bob appears
from the background, you know,

and l held up the paper
and said, ''What is this?''

and Bob Wells said, ''You know what,
Mel? l just can't cool down today.

''And l just thought if l could
write a few lines like this it

''would just somehow
mentally cool me down.''

And that's really all it was.

My dad was the one who said,
''No, no, there's something here.''

And literally 24 minutes later,
The Christmas Song was written.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mel Torme.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Jack Frost nipping
at your nose...

As well as writing songs, Mel Torme
was a hugely successful singer.

He recorded four versions
of The Christmas Song himself

between 1954 and 1992.

Torme revealed the secret
of his success to Parky.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

You are incredibly musical, you
conduct symphony orchestras, even,

and yet you never had a music lesson
in you life? No. Never did, no.

lt was just easy, was it? No, it
wasn't easy, it was...learning to

arrange was done by some process
of... l guess you could call it

musical osmosis. l grew a very large
pair of ears, much larger than these,

and listened to and admired
the people that absolutely

blew my mind away, musically.

One of these people lived not
far from where Bob had written

the lyrics, and Mel the music,
on that sweltering summer's day.

Literally that afternoon, my dad
took the song and drove over the hill

to Hancock park, to the home
of Nat King Cole,

and played Nat the song.

Played the song for Nat once
and Nat said, ''Play that again.''

So he played it one more time
and before he was done with the

final chord Nat was already saying,
''That's my song, that's my song.''

Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow

Will find it hard to sleep tonight

They know that Santa's
on his way...

By the mid-'40s, Cole was a major
star, performing pop-orientated

songs for mainstream audiences.

He recorded The Christmas Song
in 1946.

returned from the battlefields
of World War ll.

And this song became part
of the soundtrack to

Christmas in peacetime.

A picture of what Christmas is
supposed to look like.

Now, with my family, that's not what
Christmas looked like, you know.

ln my family, somebody is
getting drunk

and, those days, sometimes
it was me.

There was an uncle that didn't
get on with a cousin

we had to sit them
in separate places,

Am l doing enough for my kids?

Somebody tells me you're doing
too much,

somebody else tells
me l'm not doing enough.

And then you hear...

Chestnuts roasting
on an open fire.

And you go, ''Yeah, that's what this
is supposed to feel like.''

The song reached number three in
the US charts, and the idealised

For a songwriter, a successful
seasonal song is an annual gift.

Each year it gets more radio plays,
is heard in shopping centres,

appears on Christmas compilations
and sells more units.

Yuletide carols being song
by a choir...

Cole recorded The Christmas Song
twice more, in 1953 and 1961.

l think my dad had that sort
of sixth sense that he could

have a hit with it but that if he
gave it to Nat, it would be a smash.

And that's exactly what happened,
you know,

and the rest is history,
thank you very much.

and l was able to go to college,
you know what l mean?

Mel Torme once said, ''The royalty
cheques were staggering,

''absolutely staggering.

''Each time one comes in, Bob Wells
calls me and says,

'''My God!
Have you looked at this one?'''

According to our calculations, The
Christmas Song has earned just over

-O12.5 million in
songwriting royalties.

Yeah, that's a lot of money,
you know, you have to remember

that's over quite a lot of time
and you have a lot of mouths to

feed so to speak, so l don't ever
remember seeing it as one chunk.

HE LAUGHS

Although it's been said
Many times, many ways,

Merry Christmas

To you.

So, how does a song earn royalties?

Well, a songwriter gets paid
for every performance of a song,

for every copy sold, every time it
appears on TV or radio.

ln fact, by rights,
if you hear a song,

someone, somewhere, should be
earning royalty payments from it.

There is a set rate payable for
that usage, and that is collected

on behalf of the writers,
by a central collection society

and then it is distributed four
times a year out to the writers.

One of them is timed to arrive just
before Christmas, which is lovely,

so it gives everybody just a little
bit extra cash just before Christmas

Of course, this isn't restricted
to just one country.

Collection societies
exist across the world,

taking care of royalties
for songwriters who might not know

their music was even being
used in that territory.

ln the '90s, my band, The
Shirehorses, was played on Japanese

radio, and then out of the blue l
just received a cheque, for -O15.32.

Might not sound a lot now, but...

Well, it wasn't a lot then, to be
honest, but, every little helps, eh?

Reliable royalty figures in Britain
are very hard to access.

But as a rough estimate,
songwriting royalties

account for 7-8p for every
track on a CD sold and half that

on an averagely priced
iTunes download.

Radio play royalties vary widely,

but at the moment BBC Radio 1
pays around -O16 a minute per song.

lf you have a hit much bigger than
mine was, it's all going to add up.

There are more
profitable areas too,

where the fee rates are negotiable.

l would say a growth area has been
use in synchronisation

with visual images.
Sync rights, as we call them.

These would be the obvious
ones of use in a feature film,

or a TV advert,
and more recently on websites.

So we have, if you like,
a new mini growth area.

They pay a license fee
for the right to use that.

OK, here we go with song number
nine, and a bloke who did as much

as anyone to integrate rock 'n' roll
enter the mainstream in the '60s.

ln 1964, he was the only American

to have two number ones
in the UK charts.

And this is one of them.

ln 1964, l was only six,
a mere stripling,

and yet l can remember hearing this
riff punching out of the radio.

An indelible riff,
once hear never forgotten.

SONG: ''Pretty Woman''
by Roy Orbison

Pretty woman walking
down the street

Pretty woman
The kind l like to meet

Pretty woman...

l don't know exactly
where the genius in the song is.

ls it in the guitar lick?

ls it in the growl that Roy does?

ls it his unique
way of saying mercy?

Mercy!

So here's the story.
One afternoon at Roy Orbison's,

he's with his writing partner,
Bill Dees, they're trying

to come up with stuff, not
particularly getting anywhere.

At that point, Roy's wife,
Claudette, comes in.

''Roy!'' she says,
''Want to go out shopping.''

He says, ''l suppose you want
some money?''

And Bill Dees says, ''Pretty woman
don't need no money.''

And they think, ''Hmm.''

Start riffing on it. Words come.
The music comes.

A piece of history is born
from that chance encounter.

A wonderful moment. The only
downside is that Claudette went out

without any money and then later
that day was done for shoplifting.

l made that up.

But Bill Dees did say that whenever
he hears this riff,

he's reminded of a woman in high
heels walking down the street.

Pretty woman
Don't walk on by...

A pretty woman may not
need no money,

but the song certainly made lots.
As late as 1993, Bill Dees said

it made up most of his yearly
income, over 100,000.

50% of the royalties went to their
publishing company,

Acuff-Rose Music,

and the other half was divided
between Dees and the Big O.

l have a swimming pool in the
living room, my drawing room,

and six baths. And that's just for
convenience,

if you're on a certain level.
There are three levels.

And...

l have a couple of waterfalls
beside the staircase

that go under the swimming pool.
And this is for a pretty sound.

Rather than for show. Like l say,
l don't have that many guests.

So, it's sort of...my cave, you know?

This is James Burton, the master
of the telecaster.

James played Pretty Woman with
the Big O at a concert in 1987.

Orbison died in 1988
but the performance won him

a posthumous Grammy.

That's the same thing with Pretty
Woman. You get a great simple riff

and you're half way there
aren't you? Absolutely.

l mean, it is one of
the great riffs, isn't it?

l think it is, and the song is fun
to play, and it's a great song.

Good feel and everything.

And when we kicked it off,
we just did...

PLAYS PRETTY WOMAN RlFF

Three, four.

So it works really good.
lt's really nice.

Yeah. l mean, it's one of those
riffs that you just hear it

and you're in the zone
straightaway, aren't you?

And the drum kicks it off,
and you know, it's cool.

But, you know, when we did
the Black And White Night

and we did Pretty Woman...

That was...you and Springsteen
trading licks.

Yeah, man, it was great.

Roy's looking around and he's,
like, admiring everybody

out there in the audience.
He's diggin' it.

l asked Elvis, l said, ''lf you had
to pick one of your favourite

''singers, who would it be?''

And he thought for a second
and he said, ''Roy.''

Whoa, whoa, pretty woman.

Thank you.

But the Pretty Woman story has
a tragic twist in the tale.

lt happened in 1966, and concerns
Orbison's wife, Claudette,

the muse behind his biggest hit.

That song, Pretty Woman, that was...
Claudette, that was his first wife.

You know, cos Roy and his wife,
they loved to ride motorcycles.

So they went out for a ride one day,
a very nice day and so they

were sitting at this stop light,
this intersection, stop light, and

so the light turned green and she
takes off and Roy's still sitting

at the light and, unfortunately,
a car ran the red light and hit her

and killed her on the motorcycle
and that broke his heart.

lt was a pretty sad thing, you know?

Roy Orbison, a majestic singer and a
career that spanned the decades,

and yet it was on the slides,

Traveling Wilburys notwithstanding,
towards the end of his career.

But Pretty Woman,
the Roy Orbison song,

got a real kind of shot in the arm
and went all around the world again

when it was used in the film...what
was the name of that film?

lt was Pretty Woman, wasn't it?

The song was used in the 1990 global
hit movie

starring Richard Gere
and Julia Roberts.

Synchronisation fees
are confidential

but a song over a movie's end titles
is said to bring in anything

between -O50,000 and half a million
pounds. Mercy!

The fact that someone thought
enough of the song and felt it was

so important that they
sort of married it together,

l think insures a
little more life for that song.

ln 1989, a Florida hip-hop posse
used Pretty Woman

in a more controversial way.

Do you think you're nastier than the
average rap band?

Well, we do sexual,
we do explicit lyrics,

our lyrics are explicit,
we talk about sex.

2-Live Crew released a rude rap
version of Orbison's classic.

2-Live Crew decided to do what
rappers generally do

when they do derivative works
which is to make it more street.

Pretty Woman was a nice, poppy,
catchy, you know,

family-oriented, you know, song,

and they turned it into a song
talking about women's bottoms.

For several reasons,
we can't bring you

the 2-Live Crew version
of this song.

But here's a taste
of the inspired lyrics.

''Big, hairy woman, you gotta shave
that stuff. Big, hairy woman,

''you know, l bet it's tough.
Big hairy woman, all that hair,

''it ain't legit because you
look like Cousin lt.''

Well, move over, Noel Coward.

Bill Dees despised this version.

Around this time, rap groups were
plundering back catalogues

for samples from other songs.

2-Live Crew were refused permission
to sample Pretty Woman.

They did it anyway.
So lawyers got involved.

And 2-Live Crew's case went
all the way to

the Supreme Court
in Washington, DC.

They ended up winning the case
because the Supreme Court

decided that 2-Live Crew's version
of Pretty Woman, which they called

Oh, Pretty Woman, was a parody.

That means it was a version of
the song that made fun of the

original version of the song and
because we value the First Amendment

in the United States, we feel that
when you make fun of something,

you shouldn't be restricted in your
ability to do that,

You shouldn't have to
pay for the right to do that.

A similar law has been considered
over here in Britain.

lt's not popular among songwriters,
as you can imagine.

But despite the US
Supreme Court ruling,

Pretty Woman has still made lots of
money for Orbison and Dees.

lf you're specifically talking
about the writer's share,

l'm sure that it's
millions of dollars.

But as to what amount,
l'm not prepared to jump on.

But a lot of people have made
a lot of money off a song

such as Pretty Woman.

Our research shows that over
the years, Pretty Woman

has raked in nearly
-O13 million in royalties.

Whoa, whoa, pretty woman.

As far as we know,

this is the first time a survey like
this has been attempted.

Notoriously difficult
to pinpoint with precision

what certain songs have earned,
not least because it's changing

all the time -
records are being sold,

things are being played
on the radio.

There are people in the industry
who'd rather you didn't know
what they've earned.

There may be songwriters who
are not entirely sure themselves.

So, in many ways, it's one of the
industry's best kept secrets,

but our analysts have compiled all
the publicly available data

over the last 60 years,
and so it might not be precise,

but it's as precise
as anyone's going to get.

We are in the right ballpark,
certainly.

The eighth song on our list
is our first British entry.

lt's also our youngest song,
dating from 1983.

lt was recorded by The Police,
and is credited to one of our

most successful songwriters
and artists, Sting.

And at an award
ceremony in London in 2007,

it was marked for
nine million radio plays.

Don't worry, we're only going
to play it once.

MUSlC: ''Every Breath You Take''
by The Police

Every breath you take

Every move you make...

Every Breath You Take stormed charts
all over the world.

Number one in the USA, UK,
South Africa, lreland, ltaly...

Everywhere, really.

That's many millions
of records sold.

Certain songs come
at a time in an artist's life

when the world is ready.

l mean, that song
was seared into everybody.

l think Police was at a special
spot in their career.

This, of course, was in a time
of video, and the video,

the black and white of
Sting doing that,

everything had a tremendous impact.

Since you're gone
l've been lost without a trace

l dream at night
l can only see...

This was celebrated by the
first MTV Awards in 1984.

MTV made music global,
and boosted song sales massively.

l keep crying, baby, baby

Please...

Every Breath You Take is damn
near perfect. lt is.

lt's an absolute masterpiece.

And people talk about, you know,
'80s studio sounds,

''Oh, the terrible tinny drums''
and all that. No!

Go and listen to
Every Breath You Take.

l think it's my most successful song

and probably better known
than any others.

And yet, it's not in the least
bit original.

lt has a standard chord sequence...

Every breath you take

Every move you make.

lf that's your opening line
and that's the title of the song,

you've locked in where you're going.

And Every Breath You Take, l mean
that, really,

l want to know about what he's
going to tell me now.

Sting's basic melody
was developed into the famous

guitar riff by Andy Summers.

We went into the studio and
Sting said to me,

''Go on, make it your own. Just...
OK, the drums and bass are there,

''do whatever you want to it,
l don't care anymore.''

That's really
throwing down the gauntlet.

But, you know, l was
able to rise to the occasion,

and put in that lick, you know, that
riff all the way through the song,

that just made it sound
immediately like The Police.

l remember the moment clearly.
l was out in the studio,

this large studio, completely alone.

l finished the guitar part
and everybody stood up

and cheered and clapped. That was it.

Every smile you fake, every claim
You stake, l'll be watching you...

Massively successful song
and played at lots of weddings

and things and deemed to be a kind
of big romantic classic.

Oh, every breath you take,
l'll be watching you.

And in fact, it has more to do with
divorce than weddings because Sting

wrote this around the time he was
splitting up with his first wife.

And he has said this song
is not about adoration,

it's about kind of watching,
borderline stalking,

it's about control.

l always thought that rather than
it being a, you know,

toasting someone with
a glass of champagne, it was

glaring at them menacingly through
the bottom of a drained pint glass.

And weirdly, maybe this is
the song's appeal.

After all, in the '80s,
the divorce rate in Britain

went through the roof.

Every Breath You Take caught
the tone of the times.

lt's a very modern love song.

lt's estimated
by his publisher that the

revenues from Every Breath You Take,
were a quarter to a third

of the entire song
publishing catalogue of The Police.

Just one song.

And that happens with
so many people,

hugely popular artists,
actually, if you drill down,

it's three or four songs, if you
drill down a bit further,

it's one song.

But, you know, that's hell of a
day's work, that is.

Recording Every Breath You Take,

and the rest of the Synchronicity
album, was, by all accounts,

a painful process.

ln particular, relations
between Sting

and drummer Stewart Copeland
were reaching breaking point.

So do you think there's
going to be Police around

for quite a long time yet? We'll
probably break up again next week.

ln 2003, two decades after
he wrote the song,

Sting was raking in 2,000 a day
from Every Breath You Take,

a song, which like
most of the big Police hits,

he took sole credit for.

By then, a big slice of these
royalties weren't

coming from the original recording.

MUSlC: ''l'll Be Missing You''
by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans

P Diddy, or Puff Daddy as he was
known then, sampled the song

on a 1997 tribute to his late
friend Notorious B.l.G.

One thing l think that was
very, very bright,

it certainly increased the value
to the writer and the publisher,

when they came for the licence, and
they said, ''We're changing lyrics,

''we're doing this, we're doing that,
we would like to have permission

''to do it and we would like certain
portion of the writer's credit

''and the publishing because we're
adding so much new work.''

The publisher said,

''We'll let you do that,
but you're not getting any credit.

''This song is still going to
be 100% Gordon Sumner, Sting.''

l'll Be Missing You
takes its vocal melody

and some lyrics
from Every Breath You Take.

And the distinctive sample?

Well, that was Andy Summers'
guitar lick.

Sampling arrived in a big
way with hip-hop.

Very often the bit that they're
taking is the bit of sound,

the riff, the little hooky bit...not
necessarily...they don't want

the sense of the song, they want the
taste and the texture of the thing.

One of my little kids said, ''Ooh,
Dad there's a guy, on the radio

''who sounds like you.'' lt was
playing on his little radio

in the bedroom, and l went, ''All
right, let me hear...hang on.''

When it's real
Feelings hard to conceal

Can't imagine all the pain l feel

Give anything to hear
Half your breath...

Puff Daddy's track was a global hit,

estimated to have sold
around seven million copies.

At the time it didn't seem such
a big deal, you know, of course,

he went and sold 50,000, then
100,000, then 200,000, 500,000, then

And l certainly felt
responsible for part of that

but l don't think l ever got
due recognition for that.

The sampling of just one
element of a song,

in this case, Summers' guitar riff,

raises interesting
questions about ownership.

That becomes part of the record but
not part of the copyright.

The song is the copyright.

lt's hard to say how that should
really be arranged

but l think we can leave
that to the people in the studio

and the people in the band,
so to speak.

Sting didn't write the guitar line,
l wrote that.

But, you know,
it gets complicated, you see.

This is the part where it gets
involved with money, royalties,

intellectual property, who gets
the credit for songwriting.

We had our own specific
arrangement in The Police.

But, in this case,
Sting came in with that song

so he's credited as the writer.

As the arranger, if you like,
with me pulling the guitar part,

and l didn't get a credit.

So...

Anyway, we have internal
arrangements, which we won't go into

right now, about the filthy lucre.

Overall, we estimate that this song
has earned a breath-taking

-O13.5 million in filthy lucre.

Can l have mine now?

At least The Police reached
some kind of arrangement.

Songwriting royalties can cause
all kinds of tensions within bands.

Always happens, every band.

They become enormously successful,
they go on the road for five years,

they go crazy, they take a few
years off and then they look round

and notice that one of them's got
a bigger house than the other ones.

And they think,
''Why has that happened?

''A-ha! You wrote the songs.''

Because that is where the money is.

You will probably find that behind
most splits of bands

there is a songwriting
issue somewhere.

lt may not be the total reason
for the split but it will be

there somewhere, it will be itching
away at them at some level.

Sometimes these disagreements
end up in a court of law.

So true...

Spandau Ballet and The Smiths
went through complex

and expensive court cases
over royalties.

lt's cold outside...

This is precisely why some bands,
among them, U2 and Coldplay,

are reported to have band
agreements, which split the

songwriting
royalties between all members,

regardless of their contribution
to individual songs.

They might be at each other's
throats sometimes,

that's rock and roll, isn't it?

But at least it's
not about royalties.

Thank you, everybody.

Being smart, you probably
guessed from where l am

that the next song on our list of
the world's richest songs

is another Christmas number.

lf you are budding songwriter,
it might be worth

it's like the gift that
keeps on giving. This next one was

written by a New York
songwriting duo of

Haven Gillespie and J Fred Coots,
and as clearly, we're in New York,

let's have one of its celebrated
versions by Bruce Springsteen,

who's over the river in New Joisey.

You better watch out
You better not cry

You better not pout
l'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town...

The Boss's live concert version
was released in 1981,

and still features on
Christmas compilations today.

But the story of this song
begins half a century earlier

on a New York train.

Haven Gillespie,
a professional lyricist,

had been ordered by his publisher
to write a Christmas song.

''What's the point?'' he grumbled.

''Who's going to listen to it
the other 11 months of the year?''

Gillespie sought
inspiration from seasonal adverts

on a Manhattan subway train.

Then he remembered a
warning from his mother,

''lf you don't wash behind your
ears, Haven, Santa won't come.

''You'd better be good.''

He began to scribble
lyrics on an envelope.

And during a short Manhattan subway
ride he finished them.

As with, l think, a lot of songs
that have endurance,

one of the elements they have is
some kind of organic beginnings,

you know, from coming from a
real life situation.

And when that happens,
it's sort of otherworldly.

lt's an amazing
gift for a song writer.

And if a song, a new recording
of Santa Claus ls Coming To Town,

is recorded by someone
like Bruce Springsteen,

you know that you're going to have
a really good Christmas.

Back in the 1930s,
audiences appreciated a rather

different sound. ln November 1934,
radio host Eddie Cantor had

a live banjo version of this song
on his show. lt was a huge success.

Back then, sales of sheet music
were the main source

of royalties income.
The day after Cantor's show,

Santa Claus had
sold 100,000 copies.

By Christmas, sales passed 400,000,

making it number one in the
sheet music hit parade.

You didn't have the option
then of buying a record

so you buy the sheet music,
and then once we did have records

that were at a price the general
public could afford,

then sheet music becomes less.

And so it goes, really. Each time
the technology moves on a little,

then you find what was the main
source of revenue tends to die away.

Santa Claus ls Coming To Town
has been recorded

over 200 different times.

Each one of those is a bit of a
present for the writers,

cos for every cover version,
all the songwriting royalties

go to the people who wrote the song.

So 200 versions,
let's listen to all of them.

No, l'll tell you what,
let's just listen to a few.

First off ,the unmistakable voice
of Dolly Parton.

You better watch out, you better
not cry, you better not...

And the Jackson 5.

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Brace yourselves now.
lt's Justin Bieber.

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake...

And finally, Alice Cooper with
Santa Claws ls Coming To Town.

As in claws. Do you see what he
did there? Brilliant.

Santa Claws is coming to town...

Santa Claus ls Coming To Town,
like many seasonal songs

from the mid-'20th century,
avoids any religious references.

When these songs became popular
hits, they helped create our

modern idea of a secular Christmas.
Perhaps this isn't such a surprise.

Many of them were written
by songwriters who,

for obvious reasons,
left Christianity out of it.

Jews always excelled at writing
American songs.

The real irony is
that Christmas songs became

the special property of
Jewish songwriters.

The Christmas Song,
Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire,

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,
Santa Claus ls Coming To Town,

Winter Wonderland - these are
all written by Jewish songwriters.

So what do you know?

Well, what we know, with
some degree of accuracy at least,

is that Santa Claus ls
Coming To Town has,

in its various incarnations,

good, bad and indifferent,
made just over -O16.5 million.

So if we assume the
publishing company have

taken 50%/% of the royalties,

then the other 50% has been
split between Haven Gillespie

and J Fred Coots. Therefore, that
inspired 1930s New York subway ride

has netted Haven and his
heirs four million quid so far.

He's coming to town...

A 50/50 split is still
common in the US,

but nowadays, a very successful
British writer can get 75%/% or more.

And some songwriters,
famous and not,

are controlling their own publishing
to maximise their returns.

Before we move on to the sixth
richest song in the world,

here's a cautionary tale for budding
songwriters about a song

that just narrowly missed our chart.

When Van Morrison was a little boy
he was a cheery soul.

He was good. He did go to sleep.
He had marvellous Christmases.

And yet these days,
he has something of a truculent

and grumpy reputation.

What could have happened
to change cheery little Van

into the person we
think we know today?

Perhaps this story
of the relationship between

Van the songwriter and his record
company holds the answer.

Maybe.