No, Paulie No Sue

A collaboration between Paul Anka and Michael Jackson took place a long time ago in the 1980s, when they co-wrote a song entitled "I Never Heard." When Paul Anka heard the new Michael Jackson song, "This Is It," just released posthumously, the master songwriter wasn't saying "I never heard." He recognized it at his own work right away.

Canadian-born singer and songwriter,Paul Anka first achieved fame in his teens with hit songs such as "Diana," "Lonely Boy," "Puppy Love" and many others. Paul penned the Tom Jones hit "She's a Lady." He also wrote the English lyrics to a French song called "Comme D'Habitude." "My Way" was not only destined to become Frank Sinatra's famous signature song, it has been covered by a multitude of artists since 1968, including Elvis Presley, Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers, Brook Benton, Sammy Davis, Jr. and even Sid Vicious.

The list of movies and television shows that Paul Anka's music has appeared in is incredibly long. Paul has even appeared in a few as an actor, such as 3000 Miles to Graceland. Paul also composed the theme song of many movies, as well as the theme for The Tonight Show, one of the most recognizable theme songs of all time. Paul has enjoyed a long and illustrious career spanning over 50 years, and his detailed song list on the Songwriters Hall of Fame takes up 21 pages.

Anka said that he and Michael Jackson co-wrote the "I Never Heard" song in 1983 as a duet for Anka's album "Walk a Fine Line." Afterwards, Jackson decided not to use it and the song was recorded by Latin hip-hop artist, Safire, but Michael Jackson took the tapes. At the time, Anka also made litigation threats and the tapes, as well as documents proving he is the copyright owner of both the music and lyrics, were returned.

After hearing the new song, Anka said on October 12, 2009: "They have a major, major problem on their hands." Later that day, the Jackson estate administrator, John McClain, called the famous icon up and apologized to him for releasing the new song without due credit.

The Jackson estate administrator built an arrangement around the piano-and-vocals track without realizing he was infringing on Anka's copyright. Anka told the New York times that he responded: "It's fine if it's an honest mistake. These things happen." The Jackson estate released a statement indicating that there was no intent to defraud Paul Anka which stated, in part: "The song was picked because the lyrics were appropriate because of the name Michael gave his tour ..."

All's well that ends well, and the happy result of this little misunderstanding is that Paul Anka will get 50 percent of the proceeds from sales of "This Is It." Paul's already got a credit on his IMDB page.