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Do You Think I’m Stealing?
Well? Do You?
Here’s a naughty songwriting steal from lawsuits past – Rod Stewart’s 1978 hit ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy?’ was proved to plagiarise the melody of Jorge Ben Jor’s 1972 hit ‘Taj Mahal’. Stewart agreed in settlement to pay all the royalties of the song to UNICEF.
The contentious melody excerpt can be found at 1:15 in the track. Thanks to the ever-musically-alert Richard J Parfitt for this – it was a new one on me.
Alexandra Burke’s ‘familiar’ new single
Not all similar-sounding songs are copyright infringing – or are they? The new Alexandra Burke single ‘Start Without You’ has a chorus that is remarkably similar to the New Orleans/Creole Mardi Gras song ‘Iko Iko‘. The videos are below so you can judge for yourself (note the ‘Natasha’ 1980s cover is one of hundreds so is not the ‘definitive’ version – it was just the biggest UK hit version – personally I prefer the charm of the original 1960s Dixie Cups version).
The question is – why is this not an infringement? There are two reasons, I suggest. Firstly, despite the Dixie Cups successfully claiming authorship one could argue a case for the melody not being a copyright work – the DCs themselves mentioned in interview that their grandmother used to sing it to them (they were credited as composers in the absence of a prior composer being identified). Secondly, it uses musical ‘gestures’ from the melody rather than a significant number of identical notes. The chord pattern is identical, and the melody’s phrases often start on the same note and beat, but the actual notes, when compared like-for-like, are different. That said, if the Dixie Cups did want to contest this, I reckon Burke (…’s songwriters’ publishers’ lawyers) would have a hard time defending that melody…
London, New York, Paris, Munich… who ya gonna call?
Compare and contrast.
Lewis sued Parker for plagiarism on this one; they settled out of court and signed a confidentiality agreement (which Lewis broke in 2001, resulting in legal action by Parker). Listen for the E-D-A chord riff (the D and A chords being on beats 3 and 4 of the bar) that is characteristic of Ghostbusters and I Want a New Drug but also lots of other things, notably ‘Pop Musik’ by M (which in 1979 predated both tracks). Here’s the story of the 2001 legal action.
Anyway, here they are – judge for yourself.
