Saturday Stream | Sounds A Lot Like…
By Andy Kahn Mar 14, 2015 • 12:00 pm PDT
Earlier this week the family of the late Marvin Gaye was awarded over $7 million by a jury that found Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke illegally copied from Gaye’s song, “Got To Give It Up,” when writing their pop hit, “Blurred Lines.”
Without getting into the nuances of the case and whether or not it sets a chilling new precedent for what counts as copyright infringement, it most certainly was not the first time two songs have been deemed too similar, either in court or in the court of public opinion. The below Spotify playlist Sounds A Lot Like… includes 15 sets of songs that bear more than minor sonic resemblance. While not every song ended up being litigated, listen for yourself to see if you would have filed suit.
The playlist kicks off with Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever,” a tune Trey Anastasio pointed out sounds awfully similar to Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water,” while noting he prefered the latter. The Flaming Lips’ “Flight Test” ended up crediting Cat Stevens as a songwriter after similarities to the Stevens’ “Father and Son” were pointed out by Stevens’ record label. Huey Lewis was reprimanded for talking about the settlement reached over the similarities between his, “I Want A New Drug,” and Ray Parker, Jr.’s theme for “Ghostbusters.”
Also included is Meghan Trainor’s 2014 pop hit “All About That Bass,” which suffered several claims of similarity, including Phish’s song “Contact,” which the band made light of during the “Contact” encore at their show in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on October 30, 2014. Tom Petty made the playlist twice, both times on the “was copied” side with similarities with two time offenders Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California,” resembling “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” and current pop crooner Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” going so far as to credit Petty as songwriter due to similarities with his, “I Won’t Back Down,” and the Grammy Award winning Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
The final pairing closing out the playlist, Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up,” undoubtedly have the same feel, as Williams pointed out at trial, but after putting together all of the offenders and offended on this playlist, it’s tough to say which way they jury should have swayed.
Without getting into the nuances of the case and whether or not it sets a chilling new precedent for what counts as copyright infringement, it most certainly was not the first time two songs have been deemed too similar, either in court or in the court of public opinion. The below Spotify playlist Sounds A Lot Like… includes 15 sets of songs that bear more than minor sonic resemblance. While not every song ended up being litigated, listen for yourself to see if you would have filed suit.
The playlist kicks off with Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever,” a tune Trey Anastasio pointed out sounds awfully similar to Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water,” while noting he prefered the latter. The Flaming Lips’ “Flight Test” ended up crediting Cat Stevens as a songwriter after similarities to the Stevens’ “Father and Son” were pointed out by Stevens’ record label. Huey Lewis was reprimanded for talking about the settlement reached over the similarities between his, “I Want A New Drug,” and Ray Parker, Jr.’s theme for “Ghostbusters.”
Also included is Meghan Trainor’s 2014 pop hit “All About That Bass,” which suffered several claims of similarity, including Phish’s song “Contact,” which the band made light of during the “Contact” encore at their show in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on October 30, 2014. Tom Petty made the playlist twice, both times on the “was copied” side with similarities with two time offenders Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California,” resembling “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” and current pop crooner Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” going so far as to credit Petty as songwriter due to similarities with his, “I Won’t Back Down,” and the Grammy Award winning Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
The final pairing closing out the playlist, Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up,” undoubtedly have the same feel, as Williams pointed out at trial, but after putting together all of the offenders and offended on this playlist, it’s tough to say which way they jury should have swayed.
