After reading the interview with Winsford Devine, I saw one statement that I did not quite agree with
(Winsford D. - “In my honest opinion the soca or sokah idiom, has done nothing to improve our musical art forms. It has only trivialized it so now every Tom, Dick and Harry believes they can put a few meaningless words together and make a million dollars -- it has not happened yet so far.)
and that led me to refreshing my mind on THE LITIGATION surrounding WHO LET THE DOGS OUT. So I decided to write a short story on the LEGAL WRANGLE ... because, believe me, that is a real LONG STORY!!!
Well two songs did make the million dollars and MUCH MORE: HOT HOT HOT and WHO LET THE DOGS OUT. I know for a fact that ARROW reaped great financial benefits from HOT HOT HOT but the ANSLEM DOUGLAS "million dollar" went in to different pockets.
According to the Anslem Douglas version of the story, he completed Who Let the Dogs Out in 1996. Two years later, he recorded it for the Trinidadian Carnival. His version was released on a compilation CD for the 1998 festival. Then along came Deston Songs, founded by songwriter Desmond Child, who purchased the rights to the song from Douglas.
Desmond Child (songwriter, producer, arranger, and publisher -- Deston Songs) resurrected the longtime group THE BAHA MEN and erupted WHO LET THE DOGS OUT (A Soca Song) on America and the WORLD. With the group even winning a GRAMMY.
The Baha Men's Americanized version of the song, released in early 2000 blasted through radios and television sets across the land. It steadily climbed the charts, selling about three-million copies worldwide. Spectators chanted to it in stadiums and arenas. The band played it live at the 2000 World Series, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Dick Clark's New Year's Eve special. It set the tone for countless TV commercials, was on the Rugrats in Paris soundtrack, and propelled the Baha Men to household-name status.
Buster Pointdexter (Hot Hot Hot) and The Baha Men propelled to household-name status with SOCA -- but not Arrow or Anslem Douglas.
Anslem Douglas was riding high -- and expecting a huge windfall -- from his hit song, Who Let the Dogs Out. Anslem Douglas was patiently waiting for "his ship to come in". In other words, the soca artist (soul and calypso) was waiting for his big pay day, for his chance to collect the hundreds of thousands in royalties linked to the million-dollar song.
Months passed and the Douglas boat-load of dough still had not docked. And to make matters worse -- instead of being handed a six-figure cheque, Douglas was slapped with lawsuits from a long line of mostly Canadian songsmiths who claimed Who Let the Dogs Out was their song, too.
First of all, a nasty bit of legal wrangling between Douglas and his one-time Who Let the Dogs Out collaborator Ossie Gurley in courts in New York and Toronto. Gurley, who is also based in Toronto, contended he is entitled to half of the Douglas royalty take from the song because he wrote the original music (Douglas wrote the words).
So instead of Anslem Douglas celebrating the BIG BUCKS, he ended up litigating, leaving many music-industry types scratching their heads over who really did let these dogs out -- and let the lawyers in?
And then Wingspan Records from Virginia came in and started battling Deston Songs of New York over ownership of the publishing rights to the song. Wingspan released the hip-hop version of Who Let the Dogs Out by Chuck Smooth in 1999, and developed a publishing partnership with Gurley, who claims he is the composer of the music of the Baha Men's version.
Deston Songs contended that its agreement with Douglas, the writer of the words of the song, gave it 100-per-cent ownership of the publishing.
Before that, two Toronto producers, Leroy Williams and Patrick Stephenson, disclosed they had settled, out-of-court, a lawsuit against Douglas and Deston Songs in which they claimed they were entitled to some credit and payback from Who Let the Dogs Out because they were the authors of the "woof, woof, woof" part.
In their lawsuit, Williams and Stephenson, who own a small R&B production label in downtown Toronto called Action Hitaz, said they wrote the canine hook for the song. The settlement is subject to a confidentiality agreement so few details are available.
But the duo said they got "some financial compensation" and they were presented with Triple Platinum Certification plaques for Who Let the Dogs Out that lists them as creative contributors.
At that point in the song's genealogy, it was impossible to say who wrote it, composed it, or who, ultimately, deserves to get credit for it.
And that is the short version of that story ... I am not even sure how the imbroglio resolved or how much money Anslem Douglas ended up getting!!!
Replies
woof woof woof.
Cecil: Ah change my mind about moving to MONTREAL. I watched the BAD BLOOD series on NETFLIX and I was shocked about all the MOB ACTIVITY in that city. Ah had to go dig up all kinda newspapers to see if the story had any truth and it turned out to be REALLY BASED on TRUE MOB STORIES!!!
And GUYANA was my second choice and now the politicians done start to fight over the UPCOMING OIL MONEY just like I read was going to happen. But Georgetown will be a nice place to be once the oil start to flow. Check out how all dem CUBANS already going to Guyana and getting familiarized with the place under different conditions (USA VISA).
If our SOCA ARTISTES ever get smart enough to start investing in themselves and working with AMERICAN PRODUCERS -- we could have some great GLOBAL SOCA HITS.
Wow... This Business of Music.
Lessons to be learned.
bugs