MJ taking credit for songs he didn't write

Some of the songs on invincible probably had one liners and adlibs written by him.

I'm sure Philliganes was pissed at missing out on a songwriting credit for Michael Jackson. I imagine it would be quite profitable lol. You're talking about the instrumental part after the second chorus? I'm not so sure he deserves a songwriting credit for that. That's just my opinion though. 

I'm not familiar with what John Barnes contributed to Centipede. I know they were close collaborators and Michael relied on him for instrumental tracks. 

DSTYGE doesn't really have a traditional bridge. It's really just an instrumental part.

The Greg Philliganes and DSTYGE I find problematic because Michael had agreed on a 10% writer's credit, LPs were printed crediting songwriting to both men and a contract for this was sent to Philliganes only for Michael to pull the rug out from under him.

At the same time, it doesn't surprise me because nobody stays at the top for long being Mr Nice Guy. You have to know when and how to play hardball.

Scenarios like the above are the problematic ones regardless.

The rest and any other occasion it occurs in the music industry I would regard as politics.

So, it wouldn't generally make me think less of artistry in general anyway.

Your next bit after "traditional bridge" downplays the fact it is still a bridge by calling it an instrumental part.

It's a bridge whether or not someone sings over it, traditional or unorthodox.

Who else would possibly have made such a decision in respect of the 10% writer's credit agreed with Philliganes?

It certainly wasn't Quincy or either of Michael's managers at the time who had to let Philliganes know.

Occam's Razor would point towards Michael Jackson himself and why not?

After all, MJ was wanting more responsibility and more credit for his solo songs at the time.

Re: DSTYGE. I am confused about something maybe someone can correct me. Songwriting credits as far as I know goes to the person who wrote the vocal melody and lyrics. Everything else is called an arrangement (I wouldn't say that's ethical since the songs dont just comprise of a chords and vocals, there are many elements). But especially at the time Off The Wall was released, writers, arrangers, and producers had specific jobs. Right now the lines are much more blurred.

Let's say, for the sake of discussion, MJ wrote the bassline for Billie Jean, but lyrics and melody was written by say R. Temperton. Chris Cornell's version should only be credited to R. Temperton in that alternate reality. Would it not?

Am I making sense?

Yeah I think you are right, afaik that was traditionally the case, at least in a legal sense. But of course this was bound to create issues, especially once music became much more groove- and production-based. It's quite absurd that the Billie Jean bass line would traditionally be considered a contribution to the arrangement, when it is easily the most iconic, recognizable, and driving part of the song, and probably the genesis of it.


Hmm, I disagree with the idea that MJ wrote more than half of it. Because while he may have written the lyrics and vocal melody, this was not one of the many cases where he came to a session with a vocal melody (or even an entire arrangement) in his head, which the musicians/producers then built the backing around it (e.g. the way The Girl Is Mine was done). That would have been more in line with traditional songwriting.

But in this case, it was the other way around, as MJ wrote the melody on top of existing music. He asked Buxer to simply play him some stuff on the piano to take his mind off of things, and Brad played the basic chords/melody that he had worked out for the Sonic game. MJ liked it and asked him to play more of it. He did, and MJ would then say it if he liked a part, and Brad would embellish and improvise over it further. Together they whipped it into a proper song arrangement. It's obvious that Brad should have gotten co-writing credit. It's even worse that he did not get a production credit, because he apparently worked on it entirely by himself while MJ was busy working on other tracks, and MJ only contributed minimally to the production of the song towards the end. 

Whether Greg deserved a credit for DSTYGE is debatable imo. But of course, if it is true that he was promised a co-writing credit and had the rug pulled from under him, that's wrong.

These things do not make me think less of MJ artistically. But even if it happens all the time and even though it was a relatively rare event (by all accounts he was usually fair), it's still not ethically justifiable.