That's entirely possible. The U. S. version of SMOG MONSTER credits the song as being co-written by Guy Hemric, Riichiro Manabe, and Russ Adryan. No publishers are associated with Adryan's contribution, according to ASCAP, but that doesn't mean there aren't any, because ASCAP makes lots of errors of omission in such matters. What rights Adryan would or wouldn't have would likely be in the songwriter's agreement made pertaining to that song. Without seeing that agreement, there's no way to know. I might contact ASCAP and try to find out why they aren't showing a publisher attached to this particular work. Usually there are certain clues in ASCAP's records to let you know if there's a foreign publisher involved, but I don't see anything like that in this case. A number of Adryan works are published by Dreamwriter Music, so I don't know if that was Adryan's self-owned publishing company. A surprising number of Adryan works are also showing no publisher at all.


Since Hemric is also listed as a co-writer, the problem, if there is one, could be related to his side of the equation. I used to be in contact with Guy Hemric's heir, but didn't know Hemric was associated with SMOG MONSTER at the time. Hemric wrote a number of songs with Jerry Styner in various Annette & Frankie Beach Party movies. Hemric's contribution is published by Sony Music Publishing, so if Sony hadn't granted videogram rights to the original music agreement pertaining to Hemric, then new negotiations would be needed with Sony Music if you wanted to release that film (with the song in it) onto DVD. And Sony could try to charge anything they wanted, so much so that it wouldn't be feasible to include the song in the picture. This is all speculation, mind you -- I'm just using these specific examples to provide a legal framework that shows how music rights might apply to this song/film or one like it. Sony's publishing company is also credited with being the publisher of Manabe's music, at least here in the United States. My guess is they're administrating the rights on behalf of Toho Music, since I don't believe Toho has a U. S. publishing company, although I could be wrong here.

Last Edited By: David Schecter Mar 9 09 4:01 AM. Edited 3 times.