Music History Facts

Warner Chappel Music owns the copyright to the song 'Happy Birthday'. They make over $1 million in royalties every year from the commercial use of the song.

The Grateful Dead were once called 'The Warlocks'.

Michael Jackson used a special shoe to perform his "Smooth Criminal" lean trick.

On April 4, 1968, just hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Jimi Hendrix opened a concert in Newark by performing a haunting, improvised instrumental elegy. The spontaneous tribute was never officially recorded, and no known audience recordings exist.

Paul McCartney was offered the entire Beatles song catalog for $40 million in the early 1980s and passed - telling his attorney it was too pricey. He had personally advised Michael Jackson about the value of music publishing rights just months earlier. Jackson bought the catalog for $47.5 million in 1985. It is now worth $1.2 billion.