The Rolling Stones
Next to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones were the most iconic rock band of the 1960s. But they lost the rights to virtually everything Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had written to their manager Allen Klein. Because the band had a publishing company called Nanker Phelge, Klein started a company called “Nanker Phelge USA,” and conned the Stones into believing they were the same company, when in reality, he was the sole owner of the latter. They unknowingly signed over the rights to their catalog to his company and Klein would own the rights to everything they released before 1971.
