Christmas season off to a rocky start as Dollywood sued over Charlie Brown song copyright
Aux Features Music
If you’re looking for an unusually festive place to celebrate Christmas this year, may we suggest Pigeon Forge, Tennessee? The fabled home of Dollywood, named for country legend Dolly Parton, offers holiday celebrations at the Titanic museum, a Christmas In The Smokies Bluegrass Festival, breakfast with Santa, a parade of many colors, and other plentiful holly-strewn elements of Dollywood’s Smokey Mountain Christmas. These events also include dinner theatre (naturally), and that’s where the looming presence of litigation is already Grinch-ing up the place.
Turns out, the Dollywood Christmas shows have been using the 1965 song “Christmastime Is Here” without permission in live Christmas performances since 2007. The song was written by Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi for the classic 1965 television special A Charlie Brown Christmas. AP reports that Los Angeles-based Lee Mendelson Film Productions, which owns the copyright, is “asking for $150,000 for every time the song has been used.” Dollywood told AP that “it is aware of the lawsuit but declined to comment on pending litigation.”
Well, this is just a horrible way to kick off the upcoming Christmas season. Unless Dollywood wants to cough up that considerable coinage, its shows better stick to public-domain holiday carols, like “Jingle Bells,” “Deck The Halls,” and “The Twelve Days Of Christmas.” And since Pigeon Forge bills itself as a place where “toys come to life and holiday music plays all around,” “Toyland” seems like a given.
11 Comments
“Looming presence of legislation.” Unless there’s a state or national congressional body involved I assume this was meant to be “presence of litigation.”
One more example of why creative copyrights should expire when the creators do.
Agreed and I thought that he was long gone and his heirs were looking for their payday. I was surprised to find out Mr. Mendelson is still alive and kicking. However $150K per set is more than ridiculous and I cannot imagine that Dolly would have knowingly used it without paying. I also hope she will not bend to what to me seems like extortion and they can work this out.
“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?”
It’s October 11th you assholes
The unnecessary rush of the Christmas season is one of the worst things about this country. It’s Halloween season. I don’t want to hear the C-word until December 1st.
*hastily writes Noel to the tune of Jolene*
Dolly knows that “Christmastime is Here” is the only actual good Christmas song ever written. It perfectly captures the melancholy of the season. When you hear it at the mall during the annual pain of shopping for gifts, it feels like it is commiserating with you instead of taunting you like the other songs.
Well, she might have a soft-spot for “Hard Candy Christmas” as well. Although, since it is technically about a brothel closing down, it’s debatable whether or not that one’s a proper Christmas song.
*Dolly walks away dejectedly, head bowed, arms at her side*
12 days of Christmas, all in December, and NOT A SINGLE FUCKING ONE OF THEM IN GODS BE DAMNED NOVEMBER! OR OCTOBER FOR THAT MATTER!-slams a shot of whiskey-Sing “this is Halloween” and eat mini snickers like normal people already!