Gary Glitter Is Not Entitled To ‘Joker’ Royalties

Gary Glitter will not financially benefit from his song being used in ‘Joker’.

The New York Times has confirmed that Glitter (real nae Paul Gadd) no longer owns the rights to any of his songs. Since 1997 his publishing has been owned by Snapper Music in the UK and Universal Music Publishing and BMG in the USA.

Universal has told the New York Times that as they own the songs, the royalties stay with the company. Glitter (Gadd) will not receive a payment for his work in ‘Joker’.

Snapper also confirmed to the New York Times that they own 100% of the songs and have done since 1997. Glitter gets nothing.

The controversy arose when it was noted that ‘Rock and Roll Part 2’, written by Gary Glitter and Mike Leander, was used in ‘Joker’. (Also note the song is widely used at sports games in the USA and has been for years without complaint).

The ‘Rock and Roll Part 2’ scene is a focus point of ‘Joker’.

Glitter was sentenced to 16 years in prison for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of having sex with a girl under 13.

His debut single ‘Rock and Roll Part 1 and 2’ was a number one hit in Australia, number two in the UK and number four in the USA in 1972.