Sea of Tunes

After the Beach Boys dismissed Murry Wilson as their manager in 1964, he continued to serve as their publisher.[2] In July 1965, he sent a letter to Brian requesting that he be officially granted sole ownership of the company, per a verbal agreement they had reached in 1962.[3] According to historian Keith Badman, "Brian allowed Murry to take total control to stop his father's continual hassling on the matter."[4]

In May 1969, Brian told the music press that the group's funds were depleted to the point that they were considering filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year, which Disc & Music Echo called "stunning news" and a "tremendous shock on the American pop scene".[5] In August (or November[4]), Murry sold Sea of Tunes to Irving Almo Music for $700,000 (equivalent to $4.88 million in 2019), believing the catalog's value had peaked.[6][7] Brian, according to his wife Marilyn Wilson, was devastated by the sale.[8]

Mike Love wrote, in his 2016 memoir, that the group signed away their rights to the songs under duress, and that in the late 1980s, it was discovered that the exchange was part of an elaborate plan orchestrated over two years by Abe Somer, the Beach Boys' lawyer. Somer concealed the fact that he was also Irving Music's lawyer, marking a conflict of interest.[9] Over the years, the catalog would generate more than $100 million in publishing royalties, none of which Murry or the band members ever received.[10] By 1994, the catalog was estimated to be worth $40 million ($69 million in 2019).[11]

In the early 1990s, years after Murry's passing, Brian claimed fraud and sued for the return of his song copyrights.[2] The suit suggested that Brian's signature may have been forged, "plus malpractice, misrepresentations, suppression of facts, breach of contract and conflicts of interest," making the sale illegal.[12][13] While he failed to recover them in court, he was awarded $25 million in damages, including unpaid and underpaid royalties.[14]

Mike Love alleged that he was owed credit to 79 Beach Boys songs.[15] Love explained that Murry never credited him for many of the songs he had co-written with Brian, and therefore, he had also lost out on royalties.[11] He said he "didn't know how badly I had been abused until I was deposed in Brian's pursuit of his claims against Irving Almo and Mitchell Silverburg and Nutt, which was the attorney representing the Beach Boys and Irving Almo. An inherent conflict of interest there."[16] Love hoped that "we don't have to go to trial because it's going to destroy Brian. He's going to be destroyed in depositions, first of all, let alone getting him in court."[16]

They were unable to come up with a settlement, and so Love filed suit against Wilson in 1992.[11] After an eight-week-long trial and eight days of deliberation, on December 12, 1994, Love won the case.[11] The jury ruled that Love and Wilson were partners, that Wilson or his agents concealed material facts with the intention of defrauding Love, and that they engaged in promissory fraud with respect to publishing credits and royalties, and that Love was owed the 35 songs disputed. Love later called it "almost certainly the largest case of fraud in music history".[17] He was subsequently awarded a co-writing credit to 35 songs that were published from 1962 to 1966, as well as $13 million.[11]

Awarded credits[18]

• "Surfin' U.S.A." – Love alleged he was owed credit for the song.[19] His contribution was supported by Brian in a 1974 interview.[20]
• "The Little Girl I Once Knew" – Love alleged that he was owed credit for the song.[21]
• "Wouldn't It Be Nice" – Love alleged that he was owed credits for additional parts of the song that he was not granted in the 1994 suit. Co-writer Tony Asher said it was not possible due to Love's absence during the Pet Sounds songwriting sessions.[22]

In 1997, a label named after the publishing company issued a slew of unauthorized bootleg recordings sourced from Beach Boys archives.[23]

Citations

Bibliography