Urgent:John Forgerty Rushed to the hospital in a critical condition
More than 50 years after the songs’ initial release, John Fogerty has taken global control of the publishing rights to his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, capping one of the bloodiest and longest legal battles in music industry history.
According to a Concord representative who spoke to Variety, Fogerty has paid an undisclosed sum to acquire a majority stake in the worldwide publishing rights to his song catalog with the group, which includes songs like “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Up Around the Bend,” “Have You Ever Seen Rain,” and others. Billboard was the first to report the news.
I once again own my own tunes as of this January.
I once again own my own tunes as of this January. I never imagined that this would ever be possible. I am at last back with my music after fifty years. I also get to decide how and where my music are played. I have never been able to accomplish it until this year.
The music and film tycoon Saul Zaentz, who signed Fogerty, now 77, and Creedence to his Fantasy Records in the mid-1960s under a harsh contract that he vigorously and litigiously defended for decades, was the target of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s disputes, not Concord, which purchased the catalog’s rights in 2004. The intense legal dispute between Fogerty and Zaentz was evident in the courts, the media, and even in the thinly billed 1985 song and music video “Vanz Kant Danz.” Unsurprisingly, this led to Zaentz’s unsuccessful lawsuit, which cost $144 million, alleging that the song was a copy of Fogerty’s own hit song, “Run Through the Jungle.”
