The Beatles: Paul McCartney gave Michael Jackson the idea to buy Fab Four's songs

In early 1984 the songs and albums written, recorded and released by The Beatles were put up for sale by ATV Music. At the time, the band did not know too much about copyright, so could not do anything to stop their songs from being taken away. At the time, Paul McCartney and John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, decided against purchasing the rights to the band's songs.

In 1985 Michael Jackson bought the rights to these songs for approximately $47.5 million (approximately £36.7 million).

This meant that he took the rights for songs such as Hey Jude, Let It Be and Yesterday.

Speaking about the unexpected turn of events in the 1980s, McCartney recalled what happened while he was on The Graham Norton Show in 2014.

He told the talk show host: "[We lost] the early Beatles stuff. It was a carve-up."

Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk

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