Paul Anka:'Jackson Aides Stole New Song'

Songwriter PAUL ANKA has accused MICHAEL JACKSON's 1980s entourage of stealing a song the pair wrote together.

Anka was stunned when he heard a leaked version of the King of Pop's first posthumous release, This Is It, because it was identical to a song they co-wrote 28 years ago, called I Never Heard.

The singer insists the release is an honest mistake by Jackson's estate and quickly agreed a deal to share royalties.

Anka says, 'It got resolved in about two hours. Everything is sorted out. The right thing has been done. Everyone is happy. It was an honest mistake.'

But he insists the tape only came to be because either Jackson or one of his associates stole it from the recording studio where the duo worked on the track - because neither artist had granted the other the right to use the song.

Anka adds, 'He didn't finish the project and I didn't have the rights to put it on one of my albums.

'I don't know if it was Michael or those around him, but they did illegally take the tapes from the studio. I was very upset about it and I went to his lawyers, who were my lawyers. It almost got into a legal issue.

'They returned the tapes, but Michael had obviously copied those original tapes and put them away. That copy he had in his drawer was the one they used, thinking it was a new song.'

Anka and Jackson's I Never Heard was released as a single by little-known singer Sa-Fire in 1991.

--IANS-WENN