Song lyrics in novels - just don't go there

John Lennon's IN MY LIFE lyrics, redactedI can't remember where I first picked up the idea that it was very, very expensive to use snippets of song lyrics in the novel you are writing.

I'd heard The Beatles never get quoted at all as the charges for so doing are astronomical.

So when I came to the scene in Remix where Caz is in her best friend James's car and she uneasily suspects he is romantically interested in her, then Some Enchanted Evening plays on the radio, I knew not to quote a few lines from the song though I would have liked to.

Not everyone does, though. This is Blake Morrison talking about his eleventh novel South of the River in the Guardian:

'I'd restricted myself to just a line or two from a handful of songs and vaguely hoped that was OK or that no one would notice. My editor, reasonably enough, was more cautious, and at the last minute someone from the publishing house helpfully secured the permissions on my behalf.

'I still have the invoices. For one line of "Jumpin' Jack Flash": £500. For one line of Oasis's "Wonderwall": £535. For one line of "When I'm Sixty-four": £735. For two lines of "I Shot the Sheriff" (words and music by Bob Marley, though in my head it was the Eric Clapton version): £1,000. Plus several more, of which only George Michael's "Fastlove" came in under £200. Plus VAT. Total cost: £4,401.75. A typical advance for a literary novel by a first-time author would barely meet the cost.'

Strewth. For those of you who didn't know this, now you do.