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Paul Anka has settled his gripe with Sony music after discovering that Michael Jackson's new single "This Is It" was actually a tune he co-wrote with the King of Pop in 1983 and gave to another singer to record 18 years ago.
After threatening to sue Jackson's estate for proper credit and his share of royalties, the administrators of the estate quickly acknowledged Anka's claims and granted him 50 percent of the copyright, according to the AP.
"They realize it's a mistake, they realize it's my song, they realize it's my production of his vocal in my studio and I am getting 50 percent of the whole project, actually, which is fair," Anka, 68, said in a video posted on TMZ.com.
The original song, called "I Never Heard," was intended for inclusion on an Anka album. But the pair fell out after co-writing the tune. Jackson took the master tapes, but Anka ended up getting them back. The song was eventually released in 1991 after Anka placed it with an unknown Latin singer named Sa-Fire.
Both "I Never Heard" and "This Is It" share the same vocal and piano line, although the latter track boasts new overdubs from Jackson's brothers. But "This Is It" had been promoted as a new Jackson recording, one of a multitude of unreleased recordings likely to come out in the next few years.
It was released online around the world nearly four months after the singer died in Los Angeles of a prescription drug overdose at the age of 50. Fans will be able to buy it when a two-disc album hits the shelves in two weeks to coincide with the Oct. 28 worldwide release of the Jackson rehearsal-footage movie "This is It."
