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Legal
Franklin criticises songwriting partner’s lawsuit
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 3 August 2011
Aretha Franklin has criticised one of her long term songwriting partners for suing her publishing company over a royalties dispute.
As previously reported, songwriter Norman West sued Springtime Publishing last month, claiming that the music publisher allowed ‘Put It Back Together Again’ to be released on Franklin’s recent album ‘A Woman Falling Out Of Love’ without having signed a royalties agreement with him as co-writer. He also claims Springtime have acting improperly regarding royalties on another song he wrote with Franklin, ‘Watch My Back’.
Although West stressed at the time of his lawsuit that he had no grievances with Franklin herself and he remained grateful to her for all her support over the years, the Queen Of Soul is not impressed with her one time collaborator’s lawsuit. She said in a statement yesterday that she was “extremely disappointed” that West had gone legal, adding that he had “unmitigated gall” to pursue the legal action considering how she’s “personally assisted and advised him over the past fifteen years”.
Not sure whether that will stand up in court though, assuming West has a genuine claim on the two royalty disputes.
