Songs/Records that ended up in a lawsuit
skel
You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
Couldn't find this stuff in a search either on SS or t'internet....So finally the Procul Harum 'Whiter Shade of Pale' court case is over; the organist Matthew Fisher gets a song writing credit but Brooker gets to keep all the royalties on the basis that Fisher shouldn't have left it 38 years before claiming. Looks like he got lightly sonned by the judge....(the big revelation was that over 800 versions of this pleasant tune have been recorded. Astonishing that there are 800 easy listening artistes out there.... although any song that includes vestal virgins, fandangoes and sea-sickness must be doing something right)All are aware surely of the George Harrison "My Sweet Lord" case, where the judge ruled GH had 'unintentionally' copied the Chiffons' "He's So Fine". Harrison maintained he had been inspired by the Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day".Whatever, the wrinkle on this is that the Chiffons then record My Sweet Lord to cash in on the headlines, and then Harrison uses the experience to write "This Song". Even better, he then buys the rights to "He's So Fine". Priceless.It also brings to mind a claim I once read by Captain Sensible that the Damned's songwriting process consisted of listening to their favourite TV ads and reworking them backwards to create an original composition. I always thought that a music-wise lawyer looking to make some cash and a name for him/herself could have spent a week or two looking into that.What other legal spats have there been?
Comments
meaning?
and what happened with Ghostbusters? I must have missed that...
ahemmmm......ok class in sess
from wicki
As one of the most prominent hip-hop stars of a still low-key musical scene, expectations were high for Biz's next album, I Need a Haircut. Sales were already disappointing when Biz was served a lawsuit by Gilbert O'Sullivan, who claimed that the album's Alone Again featured an unauthorized sample from his hit Alone Again (Naturally). O'Sullivan's claim was upheld in a landmark ruling, Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records, Inc.,[1] that altered the landscape of hip-hop, finding that all samples must be cleared with the original artist before being used. In accordance with the ruling, Warner Bros., the parent company of Cold Chillin', had to pull I Need a Haircut from circulation, and all companies had to clear samples with the samples' creators before releasing the records. This development reflected the increasing popularity of hip-hop and the financial stakes over which releases were set. Biz responded in 1993 with the mischievously titled All Samples Cleared!, but his career had been hurt by the publicity emanating from the lawsuit, and the record suffered accordingly.
was thinking more about song writing disputes, band names...
no doubt the sampling game is full of lawsuits and I didn't mean to trawl that mire
btw how many 'pastey folls in need of good dentition' lusting/watching/fiending at the moment?
extra btw Gilbert O'Sullivan rules...
went for 3250
From wiki:
And here's the comparison.
Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. for alledgedly plagiarizing one of his songs.
Edit: too late
In the late 70s/early 80s, a friend of a friend was singing in a blues-rock band that was broadly in the style of early Whitesnake. As well as hustling for a record deal, he was also trying to get some of his less rocky material published with a view to getting it cut by other artists. Anyway, his band does a few dates supporting an unremarkable US hard rock band (whose singer is nevertheless pretty good) who are in the UK promoting their second album. The two bands get on, and during the course of this short tour, my friend's boy hands the lead singer a demo of these songs of his, because it turns out that this guy's considering a solo career if his current band doesn't work out, and my friend's boy thinks he has the pipes to make it as a solo artist. Dude promises to give the songs a listen when he gets back to the US and get in touch if there's anything he likes. My friend's boy never hears from him again.
Fast forward several years to the late 80s, and first dude is still on the UK circuit, but he's now fronting a Commitments-style r&b revue kind of act which is bringing in decent money. Any dreams of making it as a recording artist or a professional songwriter have been quietly put to one side. Anyway, he's listening to the radio one day and he hears this dramatic (and very familiar-sounding) ballad by an American singer, Michael Bolton, called "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You". It's very familiar-sounding because, a few cosmetic embellishments aside, it was his song, and was on the demo tape he gave to...oh, hold on a moment - wasn't the singer for that American band he once opened for called Michael Bolotin? To cut an already long story short, he claims to this day that Michael Bolton straight jacked him. Of course, because he'd neglected to register the copyright in any meaningful way that would stand up in court, he couldn't prove a damn thing, although he did formally approach Bolton's management who insisted that it was an original composition and completely refuted his claim. Adding insult to injury, my friend's boy later learnt that the song had been a US hit in 1983 for Laura Brannigan, and was Bolton's breakthrough hit as a songwriter.
Fast forward another few years and, hey, how about that? Michael Bolton is in court, being sued by the Isley Brothers for plagiarism. The Isleys won, and Bolton had to cough up $5.4m for biting their song "Love Is A Wonderful Thing". He appealed against the decision, taking it as far as the Supreme Court and even trying to buy out a bankrupt Ronald Isley's publishing rights in order to kill the dispute, but the original decision was upheld. What goes around...
fuck micheal boltin again and again
terdly plagerizer
Can you please give me your friends friends address so i can batter him to death with a lead pipe.
Hate that fuckin song.
I like the term bludgeon much better than batter.
what a complete and utter bastard
(Bolton that is, not your friend's friend)
hopefully that $5.4m rescued Ronald Isley from bankruptcy
thanks for that Doc
I bet he never saw the entire amount. The courts can say that you owe it, but it's a bitch to collect.
Oh, and a reminder to all you songwriters, get your publishing and copyrights straight before you hand out demos, especially if you are giving them to douchebags.
I once saw Michael Bolton at First Avenue in Minneapolis back when I worked there in the Mid-90s. All kinds of thoughts ran through my brain of what I could get away with and not get tossed in jail. Glad I thought better of it.
Beatles - John Lennon mentions in an interview that he lifted lines from Chuck Berry for Come Together. Opps.
My Sweet Lord and He's So Fine are the same song. Exactly.
Unlike Bolton, those guys did enough original stuff that their legacy is not hurt.
In the 90s 2 living relatives of Robert Johnson were found. Neither knew that his catalog was worth millions. Columbia, and some artists who had put their name on his songs, were sitting on all that money.
When Hendrix died all his money, catalog, and songwriting rights disappeared into a series of blind off shore accounts and corporations. A guy named Douglas had something to do with it. Paul Allen, and others, helped to pay for lawyers to reclaim the rights for the family. When they reclaimed the rights Allen (who was in the process of building a Hendrix Museum) thought he was a partner with the Hendrix family, and could do what ever he wanted with the Hendrix stuff. They straightened him out.
Ever heard of John Fogarty?
John Fogarty, the UK music publisher? I know him. If you got dirt, spill it.
I didn't know that. I'm singing DYTIS in my head, and realizing it sounds Brazilian.
Ben donated what he won in the suit to Amnesty International.
The similarity is unmistakable.
That suit's probably my favorite one. Getting sued for plagiarizing yourself--how meta.
Didn't David Geffen sue Neal Young for making records that didn't sound enough like himself in the early eighties?
Don't know, I've always wondered this.
Interesting, there is a Bobby Womack song pre-dating Do Ya Think I'm Sexy that Roddy straight jacked. So Womack jacked Ben, or Ben jacked Womack?
I like the idea that Neil Young took in some jazz funk or electro masters that Geffen rejected.
I would listen for sure