They prominently said no to the show throughout the first season, but with two more seasons coming, the words “better late than never” couldn’t make more sense.
British band Coldplay finally gave the rights to their entire catalog to the producers of Glee, paving the way for a possible New Directions version of their hits such as “Yellow”, “The Scientist” and “Fix You”, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The band was one of the few musicians who notably turned down requests from the producers of the show to have their songs remade by the Glee cast. That, as artists virtually lined up to have their songs given the Glee treatment: as Madonna gave the rights to her entire catalog (which resulted in “The Power of Madonna”), the British rockers, alongside Canadian balladeer Bryan Adams, said no.
But executive producer Ryan Murphy attributes Coldplay’s U-turn to wider recognition of the show. “At the beginning, a lot of people didn’t know what we were and asked to see pages [in advance], but I refused because I didn’t want to set precedent of them having any involvement,” he said. “Coldplay and Bryan Adams were really the only rejections. But Coldplay called a week ago and said, ‘We’re sorry, you can have our catalog.'”
The move could be a shrewd one for Coldplay, one of the biggest bands to come out of the UK in the past decade: while their albums have been successful, the exposure from Glee could prove to be a boost. Not to mention all the royalty payments they could receive when the show’s covers go up on iTunes: the Glee version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'”, for instance, hit #4 on the Billboard charts, and led that band’s Neil Schon to tell Q Magazine that they earned more from Glee than from anything else they’ve done.
And that, gleeks, leads us to this question: which Coldplay song do you want to hear on the show? My fingers are crossed I don’t hear “Fix You”, because that’d be too cheesy, even if Will sings that to Emma.
(Image courtesy of WENN/Daniel Deme)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
