Lennon and McCartney gave up ownership oftheir songs in the late '60s when their financial advisers told them they could reduce their tax payments (they were in Britain's 90 percent bracket) by forming a corporation called Northern Songs that would own their copyrights, and selling stock to the public. In 1969 Sir Lew Grade's entertainment conglomerate ATV Music offeredseven times the original offering price of the Northern Songs stock in a takeover bid. Lennon and McCartney were feuding at the time and unable to organize a successful counter offer. When the Northern Songs management and shareholders accepted Sir Lew's offer in September1969, Lennon was outraged and inconsolable. Told that his massive capital gain would allow him to make his children secure—or, in the words of the poet, "Baby you're a rich man now"--Lennon replied, "I have no desire to create another fucking aristocracy." Grade in turn sold ATV in 1981 to an Australian tycoon with too many names: Robert Holmes a Court.
Enter Michael Jackson, whose 1982 Thriller album sold more than 30 million copies, making it the most successful album in the history of the world. After working with McCartney on the monster hit "Say, Say, Say," he told his lawyer, "I want to buy some copyrights, like Paul." "He only wanted songs that meant a lot to him," Robert Hilburn explained in the Los Angeles Times, so he bought Dion's "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer" but passed on Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night." But what he really wanted was the Beatles. Jackson appeared in person at the negotiations in London, wearing acolorful Sgt. Pepper outfit. That "brightened everyone'smood," Hilburn reports, and Holmes a Court agreed to sell--for $47.5 million. After agreeing to license the words and music of "Revolution" to Nike, Jackson persuaded Capitol Records, owner of the rights to the Beatles' recordings, to license the original record.
The "Revolution" ad is the most outrageous example of a familiar aspect of pop culture in the later Age of Reagan. Lou Reed, a rock hero loved for his rejection of everything soft and safe in the pop world, recently licensed his signature song, "Walk on the Wild Side," for a motor scooter ad. The Shirelles' captivating "Dedicated to the One I Love" (it peaked at No. 3 in 1961) is now used to suggest that if you are dedicated, you should serve bran flakes to the one you love. Johnny Nash's stirring "I Can See Clearly Now," one of the first reggae hits (No. 1 in 1972), sells--oh no--window cleaner. "Revolution" isn't even the first Beatles song to be licensed. John Lennon's "Help," a declaration ofhis unhappiness as a superstar, became a Mercury ad in1985. But a sound-alike band sang the song. And Michael Jackson does Pepsi commercials.
"Mack the Knife," once sung by Lotte Lenya in "TheThreepenny Opera," lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, music by Kurt Weill, has been turned into a McDonald's commercial: "It's Mac Tonight." Frank Sinatra licensed his originalrecording of "The Best Is Yet to Come" to Chrysler. Ringo Starr, meanwhile, is the first Beatle to appear in person endorsing a product--a pathetic ad for a wine cooler.
A few rockers have had the integrity to refuse to license their music. Notable among them are John Cougar Mellencamp, Bob Seger, and Joan Jett. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders has a song on their new album Get Close attacking Michael Jackson and others who have endorsed products, in which she asks, "How much did you get for your soul?" Bruce Springsteen has been offered the most to sellout, and he has refused. The admen, however, have taken revenge, expropriating Springsteen's style and attitude and reducing them to a formula for a variety of commercials. After The Boss turned down Lee Iacocca's offer to use "Born in the USA" to sell Plymouth Mini-Vans, the company ran a rip-off TV ad with the theme "Born in America." (As Dave Marsh points out in his new book on Springsteen, Glory Days, the car is assembled in Canada.)
What’s next? "Give Peace a Chance" selling Star Wars? "Happiness is a Warm Gun" licensed to the National Rifle Association? "All You Need Is Love" as the contras' theme song? Yoko Ono says she's confident Michael Jackson would "say 'no' to any misuse of the songs." He's turned down dozens of offers before accepting Nike. And neither Ono nor McCartney objected to Jackson's licensing of "Revolution" for the Nike ad. "John's songs should not be part of a cult of glorified martyrdom," Ono argues. "They should be enjoyed by kids today. This ad is a way to communicate John's song to them, to make it part of their lives instead of a relic of the distant past." She argues also that there is nothing objectionable about Nike shoes: "Sports shoes are part of fitness consciousness that is actually better for your body than some of the things we were doing in the '60s."
Maybe there's no reason to object to turning some popsongs into commercials--they didn't say anything in particular, and were written to make money in the first place. Does anyone care that the Fifth Dimension's "Up, Up, andAway" (No. 7 in 1967) has become a TWA commercial? But the "Revolution" ad is different. The song had a meaning that Nike is destroying.
A spokesman for Michael Jackson says that he plans tomake 40 other Beatles songs available for commercial exploitation.
Jon Wiener is professor of history at the University ofCalifornia, Irvine, and author of Come Together: John Lennon in His Time (Random House).
Editors' note: TNR was refused permission to reprint the entire lyrics to"Revolution " by Lennon and McCartney on the grounds that thisarticle would offend Nike.
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