Eddie Van Halen deconstructs his collaboration on 'Beat It'

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Gadzooks

I wish I knew this crap back in the early 90's with my shitty Metal Band. We would have made a fortune!
The Paul Anka story comes from a Stern interview from 2002 or so... He must have sour grapes for not cashing in on some of the ongoing royalties.
The Neil Diamond piece is based off of a Corolla rant where he says when trying to come up with a soundtrack to a movie you tend to find out that even the most obscure song you've ever liked was probably written by Neil Diamond and therefore is too expensive to use in your film.
Publishing has always been a mystery to me and yet it’s most likely the most important thing any “professional” musician should know about.

Neil Diamond was a legendary "Brill Building" songwriter and he most certainly earns writer royalties on everything he's written. Those guys basically put ASCAP on the map. The only reason his songs aren't getting more film and TV placements is because his publishing company is charging exorbitant sync fees, likely because he feels his music is too "important" to be exploited.

That said, he didn't seem to have a problem with that dopey movie "Saving Silverman" using his music, in which he played himself and had several song uses.

FYI, I LOVE Neil Diamond and my comments are not meant to be derogatory.