How a Beatles song about ‘revolution’ helped Nike become a billion dollar brand
In this crossposting from The Conversation, Alan Bradshaw details the forgotten connection between Nike and The Beatles.
Fifty years ago the Beatles released a single that sold over 8m copies – their highest selling 45rpm – Hey Jude. While Hey Jude made the greater impression, it was the B-side – Revolution – in which John Lennon addressed the global political upheaval of 1968 that has the more interesting story. Rare as it was for a pop song to address politics, the message in Revolution attracted fierce resentment within the radical left before re-appearing in 1987 in one of the most seminal and ground breaking advertisements ever made.
Lennon wrote Revolution in India where the Beatles were meditating with the Maharishi while the Vietnam War and Chinese Cultural Revolution raged on. There was a major riot in London and Paris was brought to the brink of another revolution in May of that year.
Upon their return to London, the Beatles recorded the song with Lennon lying down to sound serene. In one line he sings: “You say you want a revolution … but if you’re talking about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.” And then, after a pause, he sings “in” (because he hadn’t made his mind up).
Interesting.
You mention Apple Corp said no Beatles song would be used again.
But they used “Instant Karma”, too, in the 90’s and
I think I remember they used “Why don’t we do it in the Road?” too.
Forgotten in this piece is that the publishing rights to this song (and the majority of Beatles compositions) were sold by Robert Holmes a Court to Michael Jackson in 1985.
Jackson had been clued into buying publishing rights by his colleague Paul McCartney, who had himself lost the rights to many of his own songs due to the ‘exploitative’ nature of some management practices back in the 1960s.
McCartney was eager to buy them back when Holmes a Court put ATV (the holding entity for Northern Songs – the Beatles-specific publishing entity) on the market, and was more than capable of paying for them. He actually thought he had secured their purchase when Jackson outbid him at the last moment by IIRC $1 million.
The song was licensed to Nike for use in a commercial – despite the surviving members of the Beatles seeking to prevent this via the courts.
That their own performance was used for the ad goes to another legal facet of the music industry – mechanical rights (or the actual recording of the song made by the band). As noted in this piece, Apple Corps was able to secure a promise precluding any future use of their own recordings, but they didn’t have control over its usage here.
In contrast, the Rolling Stones were able to stop Microsoft from using ‘Start Me Up’ (both publishing and mechanical) for use in a product launch campaign, and in fact have managed to secure enough control over their post 1969 compositions and recordings that they still to this day do not allow their use in commercials and, I believe, in soundtrack compilations released for purchase (despite the fact that they allow use in films themselves).
These days, getting a song into an ad is a golden opportunity of revenue and exposure for song writers and performers who are struggling to gain revenue from the recently emerged distribution systems.
It appears to have been Michael Jackson’s willingness to maximise revenue streams from his new purchase that was the catalysing moment in this narrative.