Another fresh Pop Tap Beat exclusive, incoming! Curiously enough, this is also the second time that the game's tracklist is graced with another licensed tune to be infamously linked with legal hurdles...
Mickey
ORIGINAL: Toni Basil
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PTB |  | ★3 111 | ★4 231 | ★5 372 | ★8 508 | - |
150
heymky (Hey Mickey)Together with a trove of former Taiko no Tatsujin theme songs and a bunch of Quality-of-Life features of old and new times, lat month's Version 2.0.0 update for Pop Tap Beat also included this upbeat song from the early 80ies, a new wave tune famoulsly associated with cheerleading culture due to the vocal performance/chanting in it not straying that far away from your average sports team's support dancers chants and its extensive use in American media for cheerleader-related antics. Little did I know that by picking this one for today I'd be walking into another Plastic Love scenario!.. but let's proceed in order, shall we?
Released in 1981, Mickey is performed by the Philadelphia-based Antonia Christina Bassotta under the art name of Toni Basil, with Australian music sensations Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn behind its lyrics and composition. Debuting on the same year in May 22nd's Word of Mouth, Toni Basil's debut album, Mickey is actually a reworked cover of Kitty, one of the tracks from 1979's Smash and Pass album by British pop/rock band Racey. The song made the rounds worldwide as Toni Basil's lone top-charting track in the United States's Billboard Hot 100, with podium-worthy placements in charting from New Zealand (2nd), South Africa (3rd) and the United Kingdom (2nd). The achievement is in no-small-portion owed to its music video as well, for which little to no budget was supplied, besides scouting professional cheerleaders of a championship squad from the high school of Carson, California; the same singer is in the video while donning her own cheer sweater from her high school years at Las Vegas High! The song is also known by the title "Hey Mickey" since its digital download distribution which started in early 2020, which is also referenced by the Taiko-labeling SongID.
In order to be working on Mickey as a song with a music video of her own making, Basil joined the record label Radialchoice, to which was assigned the ownership of the rights of the artist's works. In accordance to a Copyright Act Provision from 1976 which rules an author's ability to both transfer and reclaim copyright after 35 years since its creation, the Philadelphian artist filled a termination notice in 2013 to reclaim copyright ownership over her works under the label, which would have become effective on June 2016. Radialchoice's successor in interest, the UK company Stillwater Ltd, put up a fight to maintain the legal rights on Basil's works, first by seeking declaratory judgment in federal court to have the termination notice be made ineffective (which failed) and then by claiming the artist is only owed 50% of the works' ownership, alleging that Basil's recordings are actually “joint works” co-authored by Radialchoice's record producer Greg Mathieson. The legal case was picked up after three years in a long bench trial which started on December 2019 only to end three years later, in early May 2022; it was ultimately concluded how Stillwater wasn't able to establish a preponderance of evidence on the allegation of the songs being joint works, thus ruling Toni Basil as sole rights owner of the Word of Mouth debut album (and its tracks, by extension).
The 8-star Oni status is soon warranted by the relative lack of resting space across all the 1/16-timed-charting action, barring the two drumroll markers inbetween. It's no Ikenai Taiyou scenarion with consecutive clusters for its Go-Go Time area, but splicing small notes and beefier clusters into the mix should still cause some strain across Apple-geared Taiko novices!
