Music producer suing Michael Jackson estate for $24 million

by **Admin** Fri Nov 02, 2012 3:42 am

Music producer suing Michael Jackson estate for $24 million for his work on the hit single This Is It By Cassie Carpenter

30 October 2012

That is that: A music producer claiming to partially own Michael Jackson's song This Is It is suing his estate and co-writer Paul Anka for $24 million.

Show me the money: Michael Jonzun filed the lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court, claiming he's owed one third of the radio-only single

Music producer Michael Jonzun claimed that he helped create Michael Jackson's song This Is It, and he's suing the pop icon's estate, as well as co-writer Paul Anka, for $24 million.

According to TMZ, Jonsun filed the lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court, claiming he's owed one third of the radio-only single, which accompanied the 2009 documentary of the same name.

Jonzun, an electro-dance musician, is best known for forming the Jonzun Crew in the early 1980s.

However, Anka told TMZ that he's never even heard of Jonzun and said any claims he owns a portion of This Is It are 'BS.'

In 1983, Paul collaborated with Jackson on the unreleased duet I Never Heard, and the original demo was used as the basis for This Is It.

Jackson's brothers layed down new vocals and additional instrumentation were added to the recording in 2009.

This Is It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2011 and was the former king of pop's first song to chart in over 17 years.

It became a top 20 hit on charts in Japan and Spain, and peaked at number 18 on both Billboard's US Adult Contemporary and R&B/Hip-Hop song charts

Been there, done that: Co-writer Paul Anka has never even heard of Jonzun and said any claims he owns a portion of This Is It are 'BS' - This is not the first lawsuit brought forth over the pop ballad.

Immediately after its release, Anka also threatened legal action against Jackson's estate until they agreed to give him 50 percent of the song's publishing rights.

Paul, 71, first became famous penning Put Your Head on My Shoulder and Frank Sinatra's My Way in the 1950s and sixties.

He allegedly plans to release his second 1983 collaboration with the deceased superstar, titled Love Never Felt So Good, in the near future.

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Personal note: As many know me-Oh yes I have a few choice words for this fool! Here is a fan comment from the source article which I agree with partially-there are other songs which were certainly on the US charts in the last 17 years! But this is the British rag Daily Mail so you really do need to just pull away the crap they add to their articles and take away the actual news-here is the fan comment which can also be found on the source page for this piece:

" 'This Is It' was not the first Michael Jackson song to chart in over 17 years. As this is a UK newspaper I presume the reporter is talking about UK singles charts, but my statement is just as true for the USA chart. Since 1992 Michael Jackson had at least 18 singles that charted in the UK Top 40 before he died (I may have forgotten one or two) and a similar number in the USA. Even if this was a typo and she meant to type "in over 7 years" she would still be wrong. 'The Girl Is Mine 08' charted in the Top40 in 2008 and 'One More Chance' charted in the Top40 in 2005." [I omitted the name and personal info]