Court To Settle ‘Summertime’ Battle

The High Court is set to decide the outcome of a battle over the royalties for classic hit single “In The Summertime.”

Ray Dorset, who penned the track that took Mungo Jerry to the top of the UK charts for seven weeks in 1970 and shifted 30 million copies worldwide, says his former management company siphoned his royalties by as much as £2 million.

The song has also been used in dozens of TV ads and was featured in a government campaign against drunken driving.
Dorset, who’s now 65, says Associated Music International – which is run by his former friend and business manager Eliot Cohen – made deductions from his royalty payments without his knowledge.

AMI strongly denies the allegation and the case is to be heard in full later this year.

Two weeks ago the preliminary hearing provided an unexpected twist as Andrew Sutcliffe, AMI’s barrister, suggested Dorset had been involved in the making of an offensive film in which Cohen’s head was superimposed on a Nazi uniform.

Judge Mark Cawson QC said the clip was “unpleasant and anti-Semitic,” but Robert Deacon – Dorset’s barrister – said his client and had nothing to do with the production of the film and suggested it had been produced in court only to tarnish his name.