Orchestra abandons lawsuit over Whitney Houston recording

A hard-up orchestra has dropped its legal action again Whitney Houston's record label.

It was suing Arista Records over royalties from the re-release of their version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Both sides say they are "actively working" to resolve the dispute.

The royalties could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars for the orchestra, which cut its budget by $600,000 this year to $7.6m and forced musicians to take a pay cut.

The Florida Orchestra recorded the track with Whitney Houston in 1991.

It had filed a lawsuit seeking damages for royalties from the re-release of the song.

It became a hit single after the September 11 attacks and also appears on Whitney's greatest hits album.

The lawsuit had asked a judge to enforce terms of a 1991 agreement requiring Arista to pay the orchestra royalties on all sales worldwide.

The orchestra had said Arista had refused to respond to previous attempts to discuss the royalties.

Its lawyer said: "We're very hopeful it will work out real quickly."