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New lawsuit filed over Santa Claus Is Coming To Town royalties
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 20 September 2017
The family of one of the co-writers of ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’ is suing music publisher Memory Lane Music Group over allegedly unpaid royalties.
According to TMZ, the family of Haven Gillespie accuse Memory Lane Music of not handing over all the monies they were due from the late songwriter’s work over the last two years.
The lawsuit says that, under the family’s deal with the publisher, they should see 85% of all monies generated by Gillespie’s songs, the most lucrative of which is the Christmas classic. It then alleges that monies have been going unpaid of late, and that the publisher has admitted as much.
The Gillespie family reckon they are owned more than $700,000, and their lawsuit seeks to get that money. The publishing firm is yet to respond.
‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’ was last in the news in 2015 when the family of its other writer, J Fred Coots, successfully – on appeal – exercised the termination right under American copyright law to reclaim his cut of the song rights off EMI Music Publishing.
