Plagerism

[SWC75]

There's recently been a highly publicized trail in which Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have been accused to plagiarizing a song by Marvin Gaye. Thicke and Williams have claimed their song is their original work and complain that the decision, (which has now gone against them) will limit creativity.

It brought to mind perhaps the most famous example of "re-composing" a previous song, Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Browns' "Make 'Em Laugh" from 1952's Singing in the Rain, which sounds suspicously like Cole Porter's "Be a Clown" from 1948's The Pirate.

Here is the backstory:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns...-clown-and-make-em-laugh-suspiciously-similar

 

[SWC75]

"Be A Clown"

 

[SWC75]

"Make 'Em Laugh"


It may be plagiarism but it's a superior number in a superior movie so I have to say I'm glad they did it.

 

[longtimefan]

There's recently been a highly publicized trail in which Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have been accused to plagiarizing a song by Marvin Gaye. Thicke and Williams have claimed their song is their original work and complain that the decision, (which has now gone against them) will limit creativity.

It brought to mind perhaps the most famous example of "re-composing" a previous song, Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Browns' "Make 'Em Laugh" from 1952's Singing in the Rain, which sounds suspicously like Cole Porter's "Be a Clown" from 1948's The Pirate.

Here is the backstory:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns...-clown-and-make-em-laugh-suspiciously-similar

How about "He's So Fine" (Shirelles) vs. "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison). Harrison paid ~$1.5M to settle in 1970.

 

[jekelish]

I like the story about how John Fogerty was sued for plagiarism...of one of his own songs. The case involved his former record label suing him because his song "The Old Man Down the Road" sounded too much like his OTHER song, "Run Through the Jungle." Nevermind that he wrote both songs. Fogerty won the case by bringing his guitar onto the witness stand and playing parts of both songs to prove they were indeed different. Which was probably the greatest witness testimony in courtroom history.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Just listened to the Thicke song versus the Gaye song. Not sure how they thought they could pull that one off. The intros are nearly identical.

 

[bevosu]

How about "He's So Fine" (Shirelles) vs. "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison). Harrison paid ~$1.5M to settle in 1970.

He's So Fine...The Chiffons

 

[jekelish]

Also - have to mention Huey Lewis vs. Ray Parker Jr. and "I Want a New Drug" vs. "Ghostbusters."

#NEVERFORGET #WHOYAGONNASUE

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Can you plagiarize your own song?

Listen to "Men in Tights" from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and "Jews in Space" from History of the World, Part I.

 

[DoubleDee]

My Daughter listens to a few One Direction songs. The beginning of their "Best Song Ever" is a complete rip off of the Who's "Baba O'Reilly".

 

[longtimefan]

He's So Fine...The Chiffons

He's So Fine...The Chiffons

Right you are.

Doodle-lang.

 

[bevosu]

Right you are.

Doodle-lang.

The Shirelles were a way better girl group even if they never did record that song...so I'll give you a like for mentioning them.

 

[Ghost]

Every famous Green Day song was plagiarized pretty blatantly.

Yet they survive.

I'm always surprised at home many songs steal from The Kinks.

 

[bevosu]

Not plagiarism in the sense that a "new" song is a rip off of an existing song (fairly common) ... as much as I like the Stones, they pulled a few questionable things out of their hats. Both these songs were originally recorded by black artists.

The Stones had much bigger hits with subsequent versions with almost exactly the same arrangements as the originals..


The Stones version..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHVeyo4W18U

 

[bevosu]

#2...


The Stones...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMloUWV3drc

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Star Spangled Banner

 

[PeteCalvin]

America's "Daisy Jane" was ripped off by Janet Jackson for "Let's Wait Awhile".

 

[PeteCalvin]

America's "Daisy Jane" was ripped off by Janet Jackson for "Let's Wait Awhile".

And Ms. Jackson , if you're nasty...

 

[PeteCalvin]

Also - have to mention Huey Lewis vs. Ray Parker Jr. and "I Want a New Drug" vs. "Ghostbusters."

#NEVERFORGET #WHOYAGONNASUE

This has to be one of the most famous, and most blatant, cases of musical plagiarism in history. Ray Parker Jr. was under the gun to deliver a "Huey Lewis sounding" title track to 'Ghostbusters', and Huey Lewis wanted nothing to do with it. So Ray and crew just ripped "Want a New Drug" and changed the lyrics. They gambled and it paid off, for both he and Huey. Huey won a no-brainer court settlement.

 

[jekelish]

Yep. If I'm not mistaken, I think that Ivan Reitman actually used I Want a New Drug as a placeholder track and wanted something similar.

And what he got was absurdly similar, apparently. Ha.

And fake edit: just confirmed, in this (awesome) oral history of Ghostbusters (highly recommend giving it a read, it's pretty cool stuff): http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/news/a27498/ghostbusters-oral-history/

 

[PeteCalvin]

Yep. If I'm not mistaken, I think that Ivan Reitman actually used I Want a New Drug as a placeholder track and wanted something similar.

And what he got was absurdly similar, apparently. Ha.

And fake edit: just confirmed, in this (awesome) oral history of Ghostbusters (highly recommend giving it a read, it's pretty cool stuff): http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/news/a27498/ghostbusters-oral-history/

I wonder if RPJ spoke those words with a straight face? Original? Is he nuts?

 

[jekelish]

I wonder if RPJ spoke those words with a straight face? Original? Is he nuts?

"I came up with the music pretty quickly." You don't say, Ray! I wonder how you managed to pull off that feat!?

Oh and we're all well aware that Huey and the gang are fine, upstanding CNY boys (at least, in their college days) right? They started out together as students at a little school called Cornell...maybe you've heard of it?

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. Sampled strings from a Stones song. Ended up getting sued and giving up all royalties to that song.

Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, its distinctive passage for strings was sampled from the 1965 Andrew Oldham Orchestra symphonic recording of "The Last Time", arranged & written by David Whitaker, inspired by the 1965 Rolling Stones' song of the same title.[8][9]

Originally, The Verve had negotiated a licence to use a five-note sample from the Oldham recording, but former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owned the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs) claimed that The Verve broke the agreement and used a larger portion.[10][11] Despite its original lyrics and string intro (by Wil Malone & Ashcroft), the music of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was sampled from the Oldham track, which led to a lawsuit with ABKCO Records, Klein's holding company, and eventually settled out of court. The Verve relinquished all of their royalties to Klein, owner of ABKCO Records, whilst songwriting credits were changed to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft.[12]

The Verve bassist Simon Jones said, "We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing. They rung up and said we want 100 percent or take it out of the shops, you don't have much choice."[13] After losing the composer credits to the song, Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years",[14] noting it was their biggest UK hit since "Brown Sugar".[13]

 

[SWC75]

How about "He's So Fine" (Shirelles) vs. "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison). Harrison paid ~$1.5M to settle in 1970.

For what it's worth, I think Harrison improved it.

 

[SWC75]