the list of 9 for november 13, 2009:
NINE HIT SONGS THAT RIPPED OFF OTHER SONGS
I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I am proud that I am able to write, direct, edit and shoot afilm as well as do graphic design, illustration, animation and other forms of creative writing. Iam not, however, a Renaissance Man, because I don't have a musical bone in my body. I cannot playan instrument, and if I ever tried to compose a song or even a simple melody, I immediately comeup empty, able only to hum tunes that already exist. But as the following list will show, thathappens even to the best of them. (Thanks to Peter Stubbs for some good suggestions.)
- "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" Arguably George Harrison'sbest-known post-Beatles song, "My Sweet Lord" has an uncanny similarity to the Chiffons hit ofseven years earlier. Bright Tunes, the company that owned the rights to "He's So Fine," noticedthis too, and so began rock history's most famous plagiarism suit. It's a long, long story, buteventually Harrison lost the suit, admitting that he was familiar with the Chiffons song eventhough he did not intentionally steal its melody. In a final irony, however, Harrison wound uppurchasing Bright Tunes, thus receiving royalties from both "My Sweet Lord" and the songthat inadvertently inspired it.
- "Surfin' U.S.A."/"Sweet Little Sixteen" Beach Boysfrontman Brian Wilson wrote this paean to surfing in 1963, five years after Chuck Berry's paean tounderage girls. Wilson denied that he ripped off Berry's song (even though it's obviously the sametune), but his father, Murry Wilson, who managed the Beach Boys' affairs, handed over thecopyright to Berry when Berry complained. This means that Chuck Berry receives royalties from"Surfin' U.S.A." as both composer and lyricist, even though the lyrics were Brian Wilson's.
- "Let's Live for Today"/"I Count the Tears" The chorus tothe Summer of Love anthem by '60s group The Grass Roots is the same as The Drifters' 1961 single"I Count the Tears". To make things even messier, "Let's Live for Today" was a legal remake of the1965 Italian hit "Piangi Con Me" - which of course was recorded four years after the Drifterssong. Doc Pomus, who wrote the original tune and chorus, never pursued legal action.
- "What Child Is This?"/"Greensleeves" When WilliamChatterton Dix wrote the famous Christmas carol in 1865, he didn't have to worry about copyrightinfringement, as "Greensleeves," the tune he used, was composed anonymously no later than 1580,long before copyright laws existed.
- "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"/"God Save the King (or Queen)"The irony is lost on no one that Samuel Francis Smith wrote what would become the informalnational anthem of the United States (until "The Star-Spangled Banner" was officially adopted)based on the melody of Great Britain's national anthem - less than fifty years after theRevolutionary War.
- "The Star-Spangled Banner"/"To Anacreon in Heaven" Andwhat of our current national anthem? Francis Scott Key wrote the poem in 1814; days later, hisbrother in law noticed that it fit the tune of the popular drinking song that was the anthem ofLondon's Anacreontic Society (a private gentlemen's club) and had it published anonymously. Soagain, a patriotic American anthem was stolen from the Brits - and drunken Brits, at that.
- "Love Me Tender"/"Aura Lee" One of Elvis Presley's biggesthits, it was recorded in 1956, nearly a century after the Civil War ballad "Aura Lee" was composedby one George R. Poulton. Presumably, Poulton's estate had no recourse to copyright laws, so Elvisnever shared his songwriting credit. (The "Love Me Tender" lyrics were written by Ken Darby.)
- "It's Now or Never"/"'O Sole Mio" The King steals again,this time from the song often associated with Venetian gondoliers, although "'O Sole Mio"originated in Naples - and as any Italian can tell you, the title does not translate as "OhLonely Me" but as "O My Sun." An earlier non-Presley song called "There's No Tomorrow" alsoborrowed the melody, written in 1898 and apparently preceding international copyright laws.
- "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"/"Mbube" It is a heartbreakingstory, one played out over the course of decades, in which black South African songwriter SolomonLinda recorded "Mbube" ("Lion") in 1939 for a small fee and no royalties. It was a hit in his homecountry and became a folk hit, as "Wimoweh," by American singer Pete Seeger, who never knew thetrue author and basically paid out royalties to a crook named Howard Richmond, who claimedsongwriter credit. In 1961, The Tokens released their version of the song, called "The Lion SleepsTonight," and somebody wound up making millions - though it was not Solomon Linda (who died inpoverty in 1962). The theft finally came to light in a 2000 Rolling Stone article, andultimately Linda's heirs got to reap the profits off the song that their father never lived to see.
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