Kid Creole ‘looks after his Coconuts’ with sale of rights to 80s hits

Kid Creole has sold the rights to his hits including Annie I’m Not Your Daddy to music publisher One Media iP Group, after a flurry of sales by other artists.

The singer has sold the writers’ royalties of 1980s band Kid Creole and the Coconuts, saying he wants to “look after his Coconuts way into the future”.

The musician, born August Darnell in New York in 1950, enjoyed a string of hits in the early 1980s, which also included Stool Pigeon and I’m A Wonderful Thing, Baby and in 1983 won a Brit Award for best international artist.

One Media iP Group did not disclose how much it paid for the acquisition of more than 250 Kid Creole songs.

Earlier this year the company bought the rights to a string of early hits by Take That from songwriter and producer Ian Levine.

The deal covered Levine’s producer royalties to tracks from the pop group’s 1992 debut album Take That & Party, including A Million Love Songs, Could It Be Magic and I Found Heaven.

Also included in the deal are two recorded Take That tracks which have never been released.

Kid Creole, who performed with often skimpily-attired female backing vocalists known as the Coconuts, said: “One Media is a natural home for my music because they are focused on digital… and nowadays there are hundreds of platforms, with millions of different streams going on.

“Kid Creole has to look after his Coconuts way into the future and that’s why I’ve done the deal.”

Michael Infante, CEO of One Media iP, added: “We are delighted to announce our third royalties deal acquisition of the year executed through our innovative Harmony IP programme.

“The Kid has been a delight to work with and we look forward to many years of close association with him. I want to say, “Who is the Daddy?” but that would be too corny.”

Recent months have seen Mick Fleetwood sell interests in his Fleetwood Mac back catalogue to BMG and music fund Hipgnosis Songs snap up the rights to music by Neil Young, Blondie singer Debbie Harry and Mark Ronson among others.

In December, Universal Music Group announced it had acquired Bob Dylan’s entire back catalogue in a deal reported to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.