Borrowing other people’s ideas is a fairly common phenomenon in music. And it’s not at all a fact that only unknown authors are engaged in plagiarism. On the service https://ekmixmaster.com/ you will be told how quite successful and famous musicians brazenly used other people’s work.
In the famous soundtrack to the film “Berlin Calling” the composition “Aaron” sounds. Its author Paul Kalkbrenner borrowed the idea from Aaron Neville. It was this fact that led to the lawsuit. The process took over 20 years and ended up reducing publishing revenue by millions of dollars.
Richard Ashcroft in one of his songs used a small excerpt (more precisely, a string sample) from The Rolling Stones’ The Last Time, from its orchestral version. However, the former manager of the Rolling Stones and the copyright holder of this work, Allen Klein, did not want to release the sample. Eventually “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was released in 1997, becoming one of the most successful songs in the UK. And Richard Ashcroft had to cede all rights and get nothing for the success of the song. It wasn’t until 2019 that a conciliatory agreement was reached on all sides and Richard Ashcroft got back the rights to the song.
The well-known Nirvana group did not escape the temptation to use someone else’s. When the hit “Come As You Are” was released, everyone immediately noticed a clear resemblance to the composition of the British punk band Killing Joke called “80s”. True, the lawsuit against Kurt Cobain was never filed by the author of the original. Incredibly, even The Beatles have been seen doing something as unsightly as plagiarism. Musicologists have argued that both the rhythm and the lyrics of the Fab Four’s “Come Together” are very similar to Chuck Bury’s “You Can’t Catch Me”.
In 1994, the Oasis song “Shakermaker” made a huge splash in the music world. However, in this barrel of honey was a solid fly in the ointment. The composition was very reminiscent of the song “I would like to teach the world to sing”. It was written for advertising Coca-Cola, and later became a hit with The New Seekers. The conflict was resolved with the help of big money. Several million dollars eventually reconciled Oasis and songwriters.
Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” has also been plagiarized. Edd Sheeran’s hit “Thinking Out Loud” was deemed “too similar” to Gaye’s creation. In 2017, Sheeran was sued, but then he managed to avoid a court hearing. However, a year later, the lawsuit was reopened, with $100 million at stake. The process has dragged on and is still ongoing. Who doesn’t remember the famous Ghostbusters movie? According to the online mixing service, this musical theme has become a number one hit in the USA and France.
And it was this music that became the bone of contention between Ray Parker Jr. and Huey Lewis. Indeed, in this composition, the theme of Lewis’s song “I Want A New Drug” was so clearly heard. In order not to stir up a scandal, the producers of “Ghostbusters” had to honestly admit that they did use Lewis’ work as background music in many scenes. Fortunately, the parties managed to reach an out-of-court settlement.
Bruce Springsteen’s song “Radio Nowhere” did not escape the fate of the cause of the conflict. She was very reminiscent of the creation of the British pop group Tommy Tutone called “867-5309 / Jenny”. To the credit of both parties, a real dispute over authorship did not flare up between them. The authors of the original song recognized Bruce Springsteen as a “real boss” and stated that they were even flattered that their ideas were used by such an eminent artist.