What about Arthur Crudup who wrote the song? In his lifetime, he received merely a few dollars for his songs. At page 96 of his 'Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive' [Thunder's Mouth Press 2003], Dick Waterman tells the story of trying to reach a settlement in 1972 of $60 000 for Crudup with Hill & Range. The publishing rights lay with Lester Melrose who had recorded Arthur's early material for Bluebird. When he retired to Florida, Melrose turned his company, Wabash Music, over to Hill & Range. He died a few years later leaving his wife as heir to his estate. Waterman enrolled Crudup with the American Guild of Authors and Composers and its New York City head, John Carter, worked hard to gain Crudup some royalty moneys. However, Hill & Range reneged on a $60 000 settlement saying that 'it gives away more in settlement than you can hope to get through litigation'.

It was left to Waterman to explain it to Crudup outside the Hill & Range building: 'Look, Arthur, they are refusing to give you money in settlement and they are saying you can sue them if you want. But that means going after an old, white widow who lives in Florida. We wouldn't have a chance of winning a case against her'. Waterman told Crudup how sorry he was and vowed to continue the fight:

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Arthur reached out and took my hands and folded them inside of his own huge hands. He looked me in the face and spoke slowly. 'I know you done the best that you could. I respects you and I honours you in my heart. But it just ain't meant to be'. He motioned his head upwards at the building above us. 'Them people got their ways of keeping folks like me from getting any money. If they was to bring me green money and say, "Take this and fold it up in your hand", well, then I guess I'd know that I had me something. Naked I come into this world and naked I shall leave it. It just ain't meant to be. I know you done your best and I honour you in my heart for everything'. ['Between Midnight and Day' p 96]

Crudup died the following spring. On his way home to Cambridge from the funeral in Virginia, Waterman stopped in at the NY City office of the lawyer he had used to negotiate Bonnie Raitt's contract with Warner Brothers. Waterman indicated his disgust about the treatment of Crudup. The lawyer devised a plan and ultimately arrived at a settlement for back royalties with the ownership of the songs going to Crudup's estate when they came up for copyright renewal. The first payment was for slightly over $248 000 - more than 4 times what Hill & Grange had refused to pay. Over the subsequent 30 years, Crudup's estate was paid around 3 million dollars. Waterman:

People ask me if I am happy about how it turned out. I tell them that, honestly, I don't give it much thought. I just think back to that cold afternoon when a very gentle man held my hands in his and said he honoured me in his heart because I had done the best I could for him. ['Between Midnight and Day' p98]

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--Stewie.