There are layers of reasons why several famous musicians re-recorded their music. Unlike a 'reissued' package, where artists alter or add an album or a single that has been released before, 're-recorded' music is something that's re-built from zero. Ownership of a piece of music is often a perplexing business that involves a lot of entities, from the artist themselves, their lawyers, their music labels, to their label's parent label.
Perhaps one of the most notable examples is Taylor Swift, who recorded her Fearless and Red albums this year amidst the height of the dispute between her and her former label. She claimed she'd been trying to purchase the master recordings of her first six albums with Big Machine Records, but that the label somehow sabotaged her from it, sparking a massive conversation about artists' intellectual property. To sum it up, here are some of the musicians who created re-recordings way before Taylor.
6 Taylor Swift Feuded With Her Former Label
Taylor Swift ended her long run with Big Machine Records, the label that had been her home before she rose to stardom, in 2018, and she ended up signing to Republic Records shortly after. The feud started in 2019 when Justin Bieber's former manager Scooter Braun purchased BMR in a deal worth over $300 million, with financial backings from the Carlyle Group, 23 Capital, and Soros Fund. This purchase caused the masters' ownership of her first studio albums under BMR to change. She later released the re-recorded versions of her Fearless and Red albums, and there have been talks about which album she may come up with next.
"For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work," she took to social media. "Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and 'earn' one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in ... All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I've received at his hands for years."
5 Def Leppard Re-Recorded Their Hits To Prevent Their Labels From Future Royalties
During their peak, Def Leppard was one of the most bankable British rock acts of all time. The band had a dispute against their label UMG in 2011, claiming that they were not paid fairly and had no creative control over their music. To assert their power, Joe Elliott and co re-recorded their popular hits and released them digitally like "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Rock of Ages." It was a big success for them, amassing $40,000 for the band from online sales alone. They also released the re-recorded version of their fourth album, Hysteria, ahead of their first Las Vegas residency in 2013.
"It's about principle. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was about money because the problem we've got is, they want to pay us what we think is a ridiculously low rate. It’s a well-known fact: Artists throughout the years have always been shafted by record companies," Joe Elliott said during an August 2012 interview.
4 Paula Cole Re-Recorded Her 1997 Hit Due To Licensing Issues
Another recent example is Paula Cole's 2021 re-recording venture for her 1997 hit "I Don't Want to Wait." The song is used as an opening credits soundtrack for the '90s teen drama Dawson's Creek, but when it made its venture on Netflix and DVD versions, the song was absent due to licensing issues. To make up for it, Cole decided to re-record the song and struck a deal with Sony to allow her song to be used across all streaming platforms.
"He came home from war and there was a baby waiting for him — that's, like, essentially the lyrics. You can look it up. It's about a soldier returning from war," she said about the song.
3 Sex Pixtols & Many Other Rock Acts Re-Recorded Their Materials For 'Guitar Hero'
Many reputable rock musicians, including Sex Pistols, MC5, Public Enemy, Spacehog, and others, have re-recorded their materials to be used for the Guitar Hero gaming franchise back in 2007. The reasons are plenty, but one of them is because the original masters of a song that contains multitrack of its instruments may have been lost. An example of it is "Anarchy in the UK" from Sex Pistol's 1976 debut single.
2 The Everly Brothers Switched Labels In 1960s & Re-Recorded Old Material For Their New Home
The Everly Brothers were one of the first bands who re-recorded their music. The country-rock duo was signed to Cadence Records during the earliest days of their career, but when Warner Bros' offers came to the table, they couldn't resist but sign to the big label. Then, Phil and Don decided to re-record some of their biggest hits for a new greatest hits album under the new label, leading to Cadence Records' rapid decline until its total shut down in 1964.
1 Prince Feuded With Warner Bros Over Master Ownership
After failing to obtain ownership of his master from Warner Bros, Prince told the Associated Press he'd planned to re-record his entire catalog. The funk artist, who'd infamously changed his name into a symbol, recorded 17 studio albums for the label between 1978 and 1996, spawning chart-topping hits like "Purple Rain," "Dirty Mind," and more. He later signed with Arista Records in 1998.
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