Thursday, March 28, 2024

Thanks to Ariana Grande, Broadway’s Most Famous Composers, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Have Made Over $2 Million in the Last Eight Weeks

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Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s final musical was “The Sound of Music.” It debuted on Broadway in 1959 and has been a classic staple of world culture ever since.

But could Rodgers and Hammerstein imagine that one of the songs from that show would earn them $2 million and counting already in 2019?

That would be “My Favorite Things,” a song that has been covered over and over since 1959, most especially by jazz legend John Coltrane.

Back on January 18th, Ariana Grande released her single, “7 Rings.” The intro and spine of the song are lifted from “My Favorite Things.” The famed R&H melody is what makes the song. I’m sure Grande didn’t stop to ponder the consequences of sampling from such a famous composing duo. I’ll bet she gets it now.

According to Ben Sisario in the New  York Times, the R&H just recently negotiated a deal with Grande that reminded me of when Puff Daddy took Sting’s “Every Breath You Take” for his only really big hit. Sting got the lion’s share of the royalties. (Luckily Daddy became Diddy and made a fortune with Ciroc vodka.) The R&B estate got 90% of the royalties.

Since that first week, and for the last eight, “7 Rings” has gone through the roof. The song has made over $2 million in royalties from streaming and downloads. Nearly all of that money has gone to Rodgers and Hammerstein. At its height, “7 Rings” made a half million dollars in one week. This past week, it earned $154K on 19 million streams. So far, according to Spotify, “7 Rings” has had 463 million streams. That comes to $1.7 million, not including downloads, physical sales, and other venues.

And that’s not all. “7 Rings” is still the number 1 song on the hitsdailydouble Song Revenue chart, with weeks to go before it drops off. As Kandi Burruss told me recently when I asked about Ed Sheeran nicking her song, “I love it.”

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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