Eartha Kitt performing live in 2007. Photo Credit: Jyh-Lurn Chang
Let the catalog deals continue: Primary Wave has purchased the IP of Eartha Kitt, including the artist’s 1953 rendition of “Santa Baby.”
Primary Wave and the Kitt estate just recently disclosed their agreement, encompassing the South Carolina-born singer-songwriter’s catalog as well as her name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights.
On the catalog side, the transaction extends to roughly 50 singles, eight live albums, and 17 studio albums. Overall, with these tracks, multiple contemporary remixes of the aforementioned “Santa Baby,” and more, the buyer has obtained a stake in north of 400 recordings.
And while there’s a lot of interesting IP here – including “Snuff Out the Light (Yzma’s Song)” for The Emperor’s New Groove soundtrack, a 1965 Spanish-language album, “C’est Si Bon,” and “Let’s Do It,” to name a few examples – “Santa Baby” stands out as especially noteworthy.
That’s due in large part to the holiday-music gravy train, which, besides leaving the station all on its own every November (October?), has been picking up speed in recent years. Still factoring prominently into Christmas playlists, “Santa Baby” has topped 420 million streams on Spotify alone.
(At the intersection of Kitt’s existing holiday-season presence and Primary Wave’s expertise, there’s presumably an opportunity to popularize the artist’s lesser-known 1954 follow-up “This Year’s Santa Baby.”)
In a statement, Kitt Shapiro, Eartha’s only child and the executor of her estate, pointed to Primary Wave’s ability to amplify the artist’s legacy.
“I am very excited to partner with Primary Wave to further share my mother’s legacy, and to continue spreading her message of kindness, love, acceptance and empowerment, to future generations,” she said.
And in separate remarks, Primary Wave’s Dana DuFine added: “Eartha Kitt was a true icon with one of the most distinctive voices in music. We are thrilled to partner with Eartha’s daughter, Kitt Shapiro, and are honored she has entrusted us to preserve the legacy of her mother’s legendary catalog of music.”
Elsewhere in the volume-heavy catalog sector, Pophouse today took a majority interest (BMG will retain a minority stake) in Tina Turner’s body of work and NIL rights. And Dynamite Songs reached out with word of agreements involving Joan Osborne and Lou Pomanti.
Between them, the latter two plays include nearly 300 works: Dynamite secured Osborne’s global publishing (“co-owned with UMPG”) and neighbouring rights as well as 100% of Pomanti’s “writer’s and publisher’s shares of worldwide public performance income.”
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