Jackson's new solo material to more
than two million Americans. It was
the last tour he would do with his
brothers. Following a controversy
over the concert's ticket sales, Jackson
held a press conference and
announced that he would donate his
share of the proceeds from the
Victory Tour, an estimated $3 to 5
million, to charity. Jackson's
charitable work and humanitarian
awards continued with the release of
"We Are the World" (1985), which he
co-wrote with Lionel Richie. The
song was recorded on January 28,
1985 and was released worldwide in
March 1985 to aid the poor in the
United States and Africa. The song
earned $63 million for famine
relief, and became one of thebestselling singles of all time, with 20
million copies sold. "We Are the
World" won four Grammys for 1985,
including Song of the Year going to
Jackson and Richie as its cosongwriters. Although the American
Music Award directors removed the
charity song from the competition
because they felt it would be
inappropriate, the AMA show in 1986
concluded with a tribute to the song in
honor of its first anniversary. The
project's creators received two special
AMA honors: one for the creation of
the song and another for the USA for
Africa idea. Jackson, Quincy Jones,
and entertainment promoter Ken
Kragan received special awards for
their roles in creation of the song.
Jackson's financial interests in the
music publishing business expanded
after Jackson collaborated with Paul
McCartney in the early 1980s. He
subsequently learned that McCartney
was making approximately $40
million a year from other people's
songs. By 1983, Jackson had begun
investing in publishing rights to songs
that others had written, but he was
careful with his acquisitions, only
bidding on a few of the dozens that
were offered to him. Jackson's early
acquisitions of music catalogs and
song copyrights such as the Sly
Stone collection included "Everyday
People" (1968), Len Barry's "1-2-3"
(1965), and Dion DiMucci's "The
Wanderer" (1961) and "Runaround
Sue" (1961); however, Jackson's most
significant purchase came in 1985,
when he acquired the publishing
rights to ATV Music Publishing after
months of negotiation. ATV had
acquired the publishing rights to
nearly 4000 songs, including
the Northern Songs catalog that
contained the majority of the Lennon–
McCartney compositions recorded
by the Beatles.[98]
In 1984 Robert Holmes à Court, the
wealthy Australian investor who
owned ATV Music Publishing,
announced he was putting the ATV
catalog up for sale. In 1981,
McCartney was offered the ATV
music catalog for £20 million ($40
million). According to McCartney, he
contacted Yoko Ono about making a