Thanks. I read the article and understand it a little better. There have been a lot of artist not only loosing their rights unknowingly in a lot of cases to their work but final insult of having their work credited to someone who had no part in it. The writers and singer both deserve their pay and credit. Recording companies have also been dictating choices of what we are allowed too hear vs what the artist would like to record {and likely better material} for decades. That was true in Rock and Country music. Some have broken away making their own labels and producing their own recordings.
Those who own the publishing aren’t necessarily the ones who owned them at the point of creation. It’s a big monopoly and it proves that payola works since half a century later those are still the only songs being played on radio.
As for dictating what someone is going to run, scratch the surface and you’ll find that often it was some connected producer who owned some old song and wanted to bring it back to make more dough-re-mi.
Rock Around The Clock was the b-side of Bill Haley’s single for Decca (he’d already been recording for Essex and Vogue among others). The record guy owned publishing on “13 Women” and wanted his song recorded (as the A-side so he’d get the money from sales). He was so fixated on his own investment that the Comets only had 30 minutes to record Rock Around The Clock. They managed to record 2 takes and they had to be spliced together to get a usable track.
Blueberry Hill, Keep A Knockin’, Are You Lonesome Tonight? All of these were decades old songs by the time they became “rock and roll” hits.