Forty-five years ago this Friday, September 27th in 1979, The Beatles filed a lawsuit against the producers of the Broadway musical, Beatlemania -- two years after it opened -- for $60-million. Lawyers representing Apple in New York also demanded that the various traveling productions be closed.
Leber-Krebs (former managers of Aerosmith and AC/DC), which was behind the show, countered that they'd bought performing rights to the songs, adding that, "The Beatles are making more money from royalties in the show than [we are]."
George Harrison --
"We had to stop these things in order to set the precedent that you can't just come along and rip us off. So, with Beatlemania we had to sue them. Actually the funny thing about that is we were gonna settle with them out of court for a million dollars and they refused so it went to court. The judge awarded us $11-million. We settled them for some figure beneath that, but really, it's to say, 'Now look, you can't just go round pilfering The Beatles' material.'"
The show ran for 1,006 performances on Broadway through October 17th, 1979, and the touring version was on the road through 1983.
The case wasn't settled until 1986. Among the future solo performers who starred in the production were Marshall Crenshaw as John Lennon and Glen Burtnick -- a former member of Styx and now a member of the ELO tribute band Orchestra as well as a Beatles cover band, Liverpool -- as Paul McCartney.