David Schecter wrote:
If you look at those American International record label scans (of GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW), you'll note that the music publisher of those songs is Dijon Music. Dijon Music is the BMI publishing company for Sony pertaining to DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (BMI is a performing rights organization, and you needed a BMI publishing company because Guy Hemric belonged to BMI). Sony now owns Dijon Music. Dijon Music is the specific Sony Music publishing company that owns the BMI writer contributions of "Save the Earth." Sony also owns the ASCAP publishing company pertaining to DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (OPC Music Publishing), which owns the music/songs written for that film by Ronald Stein and Jim Gordon, who are both ASCAP writers.

If that's the case David, then I'm wondering how MGM was able to put the vast Beach Party films on DVD with the original Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner songs intact. As you said earlier, Sony could ask for any price to the point where the songs couldn't be used...that is, if Sony would do so. The Beach Party films have always been available on VHS way back when in the 80s and 90s (i.e., on either Orion Home Video or Warner Home Video, depending on which ones you find) and now they are on DVD. Knowing MGM, if Sony did ask for a substancial amount of cash for the video rights, they wouldn't have paid as indicated by the bogus music rights issues they had for their DVD release of "The Return of the Living Dead".

But then, as you can tell, I'm not too knowledgeable on this issue so I'm sure there was some coming to terms between Sony and MGM, if it happened.