Music Trivia -> Song Lawsuits -> Latest Entries
Songs that have resulted in lawsuits, either for lyrics or for borrowing too much of the music.
The 20 most recent entries are listed below. There are 19 entries in this section.
"My Name Is," Eminem
Eminem's own mother filed a lawsuit against her son over the lyric "99% of my life I was lied to I found out my mom does more dope than I do." In her lawsuit Mrs Mathers claims that she never did do drugs of anykind around her son. But soon she repeatedly dropped and reinstated the lawsuit.
Celeste
"Hawkwind," Hawkwind
Founding members David Brock and Nik Turner had a court battle over the band's name Hawkwind. Dave Brock stated that he came up with the name deriving it from mythology. Nik Turner stated that it was a nickname given to him because his nose was like that of a beak, and he had tremendous flatulence, causing someone to call him Hawkwind, and he therefore name the band. I go with Dave Brock in every way. He is Hawkwind.
Wade Brock
"Love Is A Wonderful Thing," Michael Bolton
The Isley Brothers were awarded a sum of 5.4 million dollars in damages in a plagiarism lawsuit against Michael Bolton. The Isley Brothers were also awarded future royalties for the song. Michael Bolton appealed the decision, and lost the appeal.
Celeste
"Return To Innocence," Enigma
The chanting was stolen from a Tawainese couple. They got sued for it.
Mads
"U Can't Touch This," MC Hammer
Hammer was sued for not crediting Rick James for using "Superfreak" to make this song.
Martha Hankins
"The Rutles 1," Neil Innes
Neil Innes was sued by the Beatles' Apple Corps. to have Lennon/McCartney added as a credit toward the "sound-alike" Rutles/Beatles songs.
Bobbe Miller
"Ice Ice Baby ," Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice was accused for stealing the bass line for his song "Ice Ice Baby" from the song "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie. This case never went to trial, although rumor has it that the copyright holders of Under Pressure threatened suit and settled with Vanilla out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Shelby
"So Hott," Kid Rock
Somebody is suing Kid Rock because he claims that the beginning guitars in "So Hott" are the same as it is in his own song "Slow Death", and that he also did the same repetition of singing "so hot" three times, as he did in "Slow Death"
tictacs941
"Purity and Frail Limb Nursery," Slipknot
Purity was based on a story singer Corey Taylor found on the internet. The band's Roadrunner Records debut was released and then the band was sued for using the story and sound samples from the website on which the story originated. They re-released their debut album with the two tracks replaced by the song "Me Inside".
Spikejones2012
"our lawyers made us change the name of this song..," Fall Out Boy
okay so the original title of this song was "i liked you much better before you became a myspace whore" but when they went to record their lawyers saild that the song was offensive or that they couldn't mention myspace or something gay like that and so they decided to change it to "our lawyers made us change the name of this song so we wouldn't get sued"
*Music*Addict*
"Old Man Down The Road," John Fogerty
Fogerty was actually sued by Saul Zaentz, the owner to the rights of Credence Clearwater Revival songs, for plagiarizing "Run Through The Jungle"--a song which John Fogerty wrote.
Agrimorfee
"Bittersweet Symphony," The Verve
The string intro was sampled by an orchestrated version of The Rolling Stones "The Last Time". When the song was released, The Rolling Stones Record Company filed a suit against The Verve and told them that they sampled 'too much' of the song. And as a result, the song was credited as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Paul Warren
"Stars are Blind," Paris Hilton
Numerous comparisons were made of the background tune for "Stars are Blind" and "Kingston" by UB40. The similarities were striking enough to result in a lawsuit.
BulldozerBegins
"I'll Be Your Everything," Tommy Page
Jordan Knight, and Danny Wood got presented with a lawsuit claiming that the song I'll Be Your Everything had copied another song. The case was eventually thrown out of court.
Celeste
"Ice Ice Baby," Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice drew controversy by claiming that he owed no royalties for sampling "Under Pressure", citing one minor alteration to the bass line. Although no lawsuit was ever filed, the rapper supposedly settled out of court, and songwriting credit was retroactively given to Bowie and the members of Queen. (from wikipedia)
Ramon
"Barbie Girl," Aqua
The lyrics of the song are about Barbie and Ken, the dolls made by Mattel. Both the song and its music video feature Lene Nystrom as Barbie and Rene Dif as Ken. As such, the lyrics drew the ire of Barbie's corporate owners. Mattel stated in their lawsuit that the band depicted Barbie as a sex object, although Judge Alex Kozinski ruled the song was protected as a parody under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
LPG-Unit
"Ghostbusters Theme Song," Ray Parker Jr
Acording to his Behind the Music interview Huey Lewis and the News saw the video for Ray Parker Jr's song Ghostbusters and determined that the bass lines sounded too much like a sped up version of his song I Want A New Drug. Huey wasn't offended by the fact that Ray Parker Jr had ripped them off but they were offended that their song was bought and sold. The result was that Huey Lewis and his record label sued for copyright infringement and royalties which they won.
Celeste
"My Sweet Lord," George Harrison
In 1970, when George Harrison released "My Sweet Lord", the Chiffon's realized that the song nearly plagiarized "He's so Fine". This was settled in 1976 when the Chiffon's won the case. Ironically, Phil Spector produced songs by the Chiffons but he didn't produce "He's so Fine".
Paul Warren
"Do You Believe in Shame?," Duran Duran
Dale Hawkins "Suzie Q" (covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones) sued claiming it borrowed the basic melody.
ChuckyG
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by lpg unit. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
The Top Ten Contributors To This Section
| Celeste | 4 |
| Paul Warren | 2 |
| Shelby | 1 |
| Spikejones2012 | 1 |
| BulldozerBegins | 1 |
| tictacs941 | 1 |
| Agrimorfee | 1 |
| LPG-Unit | 1 |
| Mads | 1 |
| ChuckyG | 1 |
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