Roar
(Katy Perry)
Inspired by: Brave (Sara Bareilles)
The issue: April 23, 2013, Sara Bareilles drops Brave. August 10, 2013, Katy Perry releases Roar, which now has 832,873,397 views on YouTube. And they sound as similar as two scoops of vanilla ice cream from two stores.
The outcome: Sara, being Katy’s friend, brushed aside the issue with statements like: “All love, everybody. All love” and “If I’m not mad I don’t know why anybody else is upset.”

 

 

Blurred Lines
(Robin Thicke)
Inspired by: Got To Give It Up (Marvin Gaye)
The issue: Motown legend Marvin Gaye alleged that Blurred Lines –– composed by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and others, which was on the Billboard singles chart for 10 weeks ––  was a rip-off of the 1977 song.
The outcome: A Los Angeles court asked the songwriters to pay $7.4 million for copyright infringement in March. Gaye’s family is also considering taking Pharrell to court again, this time for allegedly ripping off Ain’t That Peculiar to make Happy.

 

 

Stay With Me
(Sam Smith)
Inspired by: I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty)
The issue: Just before this year’s Grammy Awards, there were reports of the song’s chorus being similar to the 1989 hit.
The outcome: Sam Smith’s management acknowledged the similarity and accepted Tom Petty as co-writer, who wrote on his website: “Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam. All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by.... We easily came to an agreement.”

 

 

Creep
(Radiohead)
Inspired by: The Air That I Breathe (The Hollies)
The issue: The song’s writers –– Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood –– sued Thom Yorke’s band for similarities between the songs.
The outcome: Both the writers earned co-writer credit on the Radiohead song.

 

Come As You Are
(Nirvana)
Inspired by: Eighties (Killing Joke)
The issue: The Nirvana song has a similar riff and though the English rock band Killing Joke complained, they didn’t file a lawsuit. Nirvana’s then-manager Danny Goldberg mentioned in the 2000 book, Eyewitness Nirvana: The Day-By-Day Chronicle, “We met to discuss what [Nevermind’s] second single would be. We couldn’t decide between Come As You Are and In Bloom. Kurt was nervous about Come As You Are because it was too similar to a Killing Joke song.”
The outcome: In 2003 former Nirvana member (and now Foo Fighters frontman) Dave Grohl recorded the drums on Killing Joke’s second self-titled album.

 

 

Come Together
(The Beatles)
Inspired by: You Can’t Catch Me (Chuck Berry)
The issue: Big Seven Music Corp (owned by Morris Levy) sued The Beatles in 1973 for taking guitar riffs and a part of the lyrics: “Here come a flattop, he was movin’ up with me.”
The outcome: John Lennon agreed to record three songs owned by Levy but ended up recording two. Levy sued, taking home $7,000. Meanwhile, Levy released an unauthorised album of Lennon songs for which the Beatle counter-sued for damaging his reputation and ended up winning $42,000 (EMI won a further $109,700).

 

Do Ya Think I’m Sexy
(Rod Stewart)
Inspired by: Taj Mahal (Jorge Ben Jor)
The issue: Brazilian singer Jorge Ben Jor sued Rod Stewart because the latter’s 1978 hit –– which is at number 308 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time –– sounds similar.
The outcome: In his autobiography Stewart wrote: “I held my hand up straight away. Not that I’d stood in the studio and said: ‘Here, I know we’ll use that tune from Taj Mahal as the chorus. The writer lives in Brazil, so he’ll never find out.’ Clearly the melody had lodged itself in my memory and then resurfaced. Unconscious plagiarism, plain and simple.”

 

 

Viva La Vida
(Coldplay)
Inspired by: If I Could Fly (Joe Satriani)
The issue: Joe Satriani has laid claim and, to some extent, Cat Stevens. In October 2008, Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay for using substantial portions of his tune. The group said it was “entirely coincidental”.
The outcome: In September 2009, the case was dismissed when both parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement. Meanwhile, Cat Stevens thought that Viva La Vida sounded like his Foreigner Suite but instead of taking action, he said: “They did copy my song but I don’t think they did it on purpose.... I’d love to sit down and have a cup of tea with them and let them know it’s okay.” Later, American music professor Lawrence Ferrara said all the melodies were similar to the composition Se tu m’ami by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who died in 1736.

 

Folsom Prison Blues
(Johnny Cash)
Inspired by: Crescent City Blues (Gordon Jenkins featuring Beverly Mahr)
The issue: The two songs not only have a similar tune but some of the lyrics match as well. The song released by the legendary Sun studio in 1955 came just two years after the Gordon Jenkins number.
The outcome: Cash had to shell out moolah to the tune of $75,000.

 

 

 

 

Whole Lotta Love
(Led Zeppelin)
Inspired by: You Need Love (Muddy Waters)
The issue: Consider Willie Dixon’s lyrics for You Need Love: “I ain’t foolin’ you need schoolin’/ Baby you know you need coolin’/ Baby, way down inside, woman you need love.” And now, Whole Lotta Love: “You need coolin’, baby, I’m not foolin’/ I’m gonna send you back to schoolin’/ Way down inside honey/ You need it/ I’m gonna give you my love.”
The outcome: The Brit band had to accept Willie Dixon as co-writer. Jimmy Page, the founder of Led Zeppelin, told New York Times in 2014: “I had a riff, which is a unique riff, O.K., and I had a structure for the song that was a unique structure. That’s it. However, within the lyrics of it, there’s You Need Love, and there are similarities within the lyrics.... Willie Dixon got credit. Fair enough.”
The jury is out: Another LZ classic, Stairway To Heaven is under the scanner for similarities with a Spirit tune titled Taurus.

 

My Sweet Lord
(George Harrison)
Inspired by: He’s So Fine (The Chiffons)
The issue: Post-Beatlehood, George proved he was not the ‘quiet one’ when he pulled out a bag full of magic with the triple album All Things Must Pass, which contained this hit song. When the track was compared to the golden oldie from the 1960s girl group, he simply said the song was in his subconscious.
The outcome: Judges didn’t take the “subconscious” plea well and he was ordered to pay $1.6 million, later whittled down to $587,000.

 

 

 

Ice Ice Baby
(Vanilla Ice)
Inspired by: Under Pressure (Queen-David Bowie)
The issue: Rapper Vanilla Ice’s only crowning moment was the bassline of the 1981 hit. He told Smash Hits in 1990: “The way I do stuff is to go through old records that my brother has. He used to listen to rock ’n’ roll and stuff like that. I listened to funk and hip hop because rock wasn’t really my era. But having a brother like that, well, I just mixed the two, and he had a copy of Under Pressure. And putting those sounds to hip hop was great.”
The outcome: He had to add Queen and David Bowie to the songwriting credit list and share royalties.