Here's one of George's quotes about it:
Here's Xciter playing "Paris is Burning" circa December 1979:George Lynch wrote:"That's a song we'd been playing for a couple of years in Xciter. Don (Dokken/vocals) actually approached me to play together in a band with him - he liked that song and wanted to know if I would be interested in performing it in a project in Germany, to try and get a record deal there. I said, 'Of course, why not.' We talked about the deal, and then I never heard from him. So some time later, he approached Mick (Brown/drums and me, to join him in Dokken. I said, 'OK.'"
"I was digging and pulled up the contract - I can't remember how I got my hands on it - but I found out that he actually sold two of my songs from Xciter to a publishing company, for something like 25,000 or 35,000 marks (about $15,000). And he listed himself as the author. I was floored. So that started the rocky relationship."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icSjtQlhjMY
Also, the original "Paris is Burning" Demo recorded by Xciter was apparently recorded in 1977 (per the liner notes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NCqJkuWhBk
(Side note: I don't know why, but the drum into in this version is the best version Mick ever played, IMO)
On a side note, I've always wondered if the original singer in Xciter (or someone else) wrote the lyrics to Paris is Burning and should've gotten Dokken royalties.
Anyway, "Paris" was included on the original 1981 Carrere release (as a studio cut) of Breaking the Chains, and included as a live version of "Paris is Burning" (allegedly from Berlin in 1982) on the subsequent 1983 Elektra version, and was performed as early as 1981 in Dokken, with credit given to "Don Dokken and George Lynch" on both releases.
Here's where it gets weird.
There's some ambiguity (and disagreement here), but Dokken went to Germany on August 28, 1979, played a bunch of shows and recorded the demo that got bootlegged as the "Back in the Streets" EP. Greg claims he was there for those recording sessions, but he isn't credited on the recording. It's known that Greg was on Dokken for awhile and went to Europe with them but it's not clear if it was this time or during their return in 1980.
Not super important, but anyway, I was watching a video of Greg Leon Invasion from 1983, and they basically start the show with the Paris is Burning riff:
https://youtu.be/DrdrdmxN3ig?t=19
This is a song called "I'm Leaving You" which is also included on the first Greg Leon Invasion CD (also released in 1983, presumably recorded around the same time).
I found an interview with Greg where he claims to have written significant portions of the Breaking the Chains album (and mentions Paris being a rip off of "I'm Leaving You"):
If it wasn't for the fact that Paris is Burning was clearly being played from Xciter as far back as 1977, I might think there was some truth to this, but given this and Greg's weird accusations about Nikki Sixx not playing bass on Crue records, I can only conclude that Greg is beyond all concept of full of shit.JH: know you got taken advantage on and therefore never received credit for songs where you wrote all the music to or ones that you simply helped write, like on the first DOKKEN record where you received no credit at all. What are some of those songs? I mean there was a song on your first record that had parts from other songs.
Greg Leon: Oh that's "I'm Leaving You" and "Paris Is Burning" sounds very similar to that on the first DOKKEN record. But that first record, BREAKING THE CHAINS was stuff I wrote on every song.
What do you guys think?