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Anka Gets Half of Jackson's Single

Songwriter granted credit, royalties for “This Is It.”

After claiming Monday morning that he had co-written Michael Jackson’s new single “This Is It,” songwriter Paul Anka has been granted a 50 percent cut of the song, according to TMZ. Upon hearing the tune, Anka claimed that Jackson stole the original recordings from his studio back in the '80s and that his estate would be sued if they did not rectify the situation. The song, Anka told The New York Times, was written and recorded in 1980 in Anka’s Carmel, California, studio. After that date, Jackson took the tapes for himself. After he cried foul play on Monday, Anka received a phone call in the late afternoon from John McClain, a record executive and producer who serves as an executor to Jackson’s estate, telling him he’s been given co-authorship and a promise of “all due credit and royalties.” Now that it’s all said and done (read: he’ll get his dues), Anka called the incident simply an “honest mistake.”