Ariana Grande's chart-topping "7 Rings" credits no fewer than 10 songwriters, but two of them –
Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II – collect 90 percent of all royalties, despite dying years before Grande was even born.
more...
"7 Rings," a trap-pop celebration of feminine empowerment through conspicuous consumption, offers a 21st-century reinterpretation of "My Favorite Things," written by Rodgers (1902–1979) and Hammerstein (1895–1960) for their 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music, which won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. "My Favorite Things" emerged as a jazz standard a year later when groundbreaking saxophonist John Coltrane made the song the title track of his seventh studio album, while Julie Andrews' rendition – recorded for 1965's Oscar-winning film version of The Sound of Music – finished at number 64 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Songs" survey of the top tunes in American cinema.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's original "My Favorite Things" extols life's simpler pleasures, e.g. "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens," but on "7 Rings," Grande luxuriates in the spoils of her immense wealth and fame, declaring devotion to "Breakfast at Tiffany's and bottles of bubbles/Girls with tattoos who like getting in trouble/Lashes and diamonds, ATM machines." Representatives for the singer and her label, Republic Records, negotiated the rights to adapt "My Favorite Things" from music publishing company Concord, which has owned the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog since 2017; according to The New York Times, Concord requested 90 percent of "7 Rings," and Grande's team accepted the deal without further negotiation. (The song "wouldn't exist in its current form were it not for ‘My Favorite Things,'" Concord chief publishing executive Jake Wisely explained.)
"7 Rings" broke streaming records upon its early 2019 release and spent eight weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, generating worldwide sales of more than 13 million copies by year's end. "7 Rings" also received nominations for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
