Paul Anka Gets Half of Michael Jackson's "This Is It"

Estate will give the singer-songwriter a 50 percent share from the proceeds of "This Is It" after Anka reminds them he cowrote the tune with Michael in 1983

All is well once again in Michael Jackson Litigation Land—but things were looking dicey for a minute.

Crooner Paul Anka, who perhaps most famously penned the lyrics to the Frank Sinatra standard "My Way," says that Jackson's estate has apologized to him for releasing the single "This Is It" without properly acknowledging Anka as a cowriter on the tune.

After publicly griping and threatening legal action if the matter of compensation wasn't taken care of, Anka said Monday afternoon that estate administrator John McClane called him up to make amends.

"I said, 'It's fine if it's an honest mistake. These things happen,' " Anka told the New York Times. McClane told him, he said, that the estate had presented Sony with 50 songs and "This Is It" was the most distinctive—for good reason, so it turned out.

In a statement, the Jackson estate said it in no way meant to put one over on the prolific singer-songwriter.

"The song was picked because the lyrics were appropriate because of the name Michael gave his tour," McClane and coadministrator John Branca said. "We are thrilled to present this song in Michael's voice for the first time, and that Michael's fans have responded in unprecedented numbers. The song was cowritten by the legendary Paul Anka."

McClane had plucked the piano-and-vocals track from the vault and built an arrangement around it, not realizing that it strongly resembled the Safire song "I Never Heard," which was credited to cowriters Jackson and Anka in the 1980s.

Anka says that he and the soon-to-be King of Pop wrote the song in 1983 as a duet for Anka's album Walk a Fine Line, but that Jackson took the tapes back shortly after the song was first recorded.

He had to threaten to sue to get the masters back, Anka said, along with documentation proving that he holds the copyright to the music and lyrics.

"They have a major, major problem on their hands," Anka said earlier today, before he received the conciliatory phone call, which, incidentally, resulted in a promise that he will get 50 percent of the proceeds from sales of "This Is It."