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Music Trivia -> Song Lawsuits -> Index
Songs that have resulted in lawsuits, either for lyrics or for borrowing too much of the music.
Latest Entries
The 20 most recent entries are listed below. There are 55 entries in this section.
"I Feel Like Dying," Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne used a sample of Karma's "Once" without permission even though it was never on any profitted release.
Mitchell
"Snoopy vs. The Red Baron," The Royal Guardsmen
Though Charles Schulz of "Peanuts" fame let The Royal Guardsmen make more songs about Snoopy, he and United Features Syndicate actually sued The Royal Guardsmen for using Snoopy without permission. Though Charlie Brown loses baseball games...he can sure win a Lawsuit!
Paul Warren
"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da," The Police
A TV ad promoting the electronic toy SIMON featured a band that was a direct rip-off of the Police. The singer's voice was a dead ringer for Sting and the band was playing a commercial ditty that had a Police-like pop-reggae sound and a chorus chant that went, "Dah doo dah doo, dah doo dah doo". Too much an imitation of the 1980-1981 hit "De do do do De da da da". Needless to say the shit soon hit the fan and the TV ad was taken off and some sort of settlement was made with the Police. I first saw this TV commercial during the autumn of 1983 and it was blantanly obvious that it was soon going to be Lawsuit City.
Every Breath You Take, I'll Be Suing You
"Standing Outside the Fire," Garth Brooks
Brooks and songwriting partner Jenny Yates were among those sued by songwriter and musician Guy Thomas. Thomas accused Brooks and Yates of stealing some of the melody to "Standing Outside the Fire" from a hit song he wrote with Kenny Loggins, "Conviction of the Heart", which appeared on his Leap of Faith CD. Even though Loggins co-wrote the song, he didn't take part in the lawsuit. It was settled out of court.
Sutch
"Oh Me So Horny," 2 Live Crew
Broward County police hauled in 2Live Crew into court because the album As Nasty As They Want To Be was banned in Broward County Florida due to its obscene lyrical content. But the case and Broward County's anti-obscenity laws were struck down and thrown out because the song was protected under free speech.
Celeste
"Fight Test," The Flaming Lips
The melody and chord progression during the verses as well as the chorus of Fight Test (2003) by the Flaming Lips are nearly identical to that of Father and Son (1970) by Cat Stevens. Fight Test has a faster tempo, but the melody is right there. After a non-contentious suit between record companies, both the Flaming Lips and Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) are receiving royalties.
bromosexual
"Xanadu," Electric Light Orchestra feat Olivia Newton John
During a radio interview (King Biscuit Flower Hour?) in the 80s, Jeff Lynne mentioned a lawsuit about satanic backmasking. He didn't give many details, other than he lost the suit and it involved his vocal performance coaching of Olivia. He refused to discuss the matter and told the interviewer that the details were in Variety magazine.
Jim
"Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden
This 1994 grunge hit was a big hit for Soundgarden in 2006 it was ruined by Peter Frampton by March 1996 synth legends The Moog Cookbook covered it
Karl 1332
"Pretty Woman," 2 Live Crew
The rap group was sued by the owners of Roy Orbison's song "Oh, Pretty Woman" for copyright infringement. 2 Live Crew won because the song was a parody.
dxman
"The Band's Name," Nirvana
In 1992, The U.K. Band from the 60's also named Nirvana filed a lawsuit against Kurt Cobain's Nirvana. The case ended with both bands calling themselves Nirvana and both Nirvana bands were to release "Nirvana Sings Nirvana", but it was shelved once Kurt Cobain died.
Paul Warren
"Business Sh*t," Beatles
I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned already. I watched the Beatles Anthology miniseries on ABC-TV (Ay-Beatle-Cee, geddit?). When their manager was found dead in a hotel the Fab 4 took on the management duties on TOP of all the stressful pressures they already had. There were several business enterprises such as Apple Corps Ltd. and their new record label Apple. The Beatles were very naive about business matters and later on they hired Allen Klein to straighten out the mess. When the burnt out superstars split up the business situation was in an extremely horrible shape. Lawsuits between Klein and the Beatles were filed back and forth. It took about 5 years just to get the band legally disbanded. Then the Apple Corps mess and more troubles with the distributor record labels took years to settle. The Fabs repeatedly referred to this legal madness as "that business sh*t".
We Can Work It Out
"Land Down Under," Men At Work
Almost thirty years after the song was released, it was found that in a musical interlude that it used certain chords from the children's song 'Kookaburra'. How they didn't notice it before I'll never know, but I'll never look at the song the same way again.
WhyBother
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams," Green Day
Oasis sued because they claimed that Green Day added new lyrics to their song, "Wonderwall". P.S. I'm surprised this isn't on here already.
JeReMy
"Girlfriend," Avril Lavigne
The Rubinoos sued Lavigne for incorporating certain lyrics of their song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" in her song "Girlfriend." The case was eventually settled.
dxman
"Come As You Are," Nirvana
In 1993, Killing Joke sued Nirvana for incorporating the riff for the song "Eighties" for the song "Come As You Are." The lawsuit was dropped after Kurt Cobain's death.
dxman
"8 Way Santa (Album)," Tad
Ask Seattle grunge conisseurs at the turn of the '90s who they thought would break through to the mainstream and Tad would come up a hell lot more than Nirvana, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains. This was all geared up to be as groundbreaking as Nevermind or Jar of Flies, but it was banned due to the photo on the cover, of a couple in a photograph bought at a garage sale. As expected, lawsuits went a-flyin' and Tad were never heard from again...
Jakko Wakko
"Viva La Vida," Coldplay
In 2008, Joe Satriani filed a lawsuit against Coldplay, alleging that "Viva La Vida" borrowed the verse melody from Satriani's song "If I Could Fly." The case was dismissed recently, with the judge deeming the similarities coincidental.
dxman
"Nobody," Wonder Girls
The song has been a subject of several lawsuits involving JYP Entertainment, a talent agency for the girl group, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the publishers behind the Wonder Girls single, taking legal action against other Asian musical groups who had adopted or covered "Nobody" without prior permission. The Korean talent agency states that groups in China, Cambodia and Thailand have been blatantly copying the group, down to the songs, dances and costumes.
LPG-Unit
"Chop Seuy!," System Of A Down
At the beggining of the song,a echo-y Serj will say "We're rolling"Suicide",which was actully the working title of the song at the time(But you will only here it on the vinal LP version)
Glenn rousseau
"Amish Paradise," Weird Al Yankovic
I do not know all the details about this lawsuit but I do know that Coolio sued Weird Al for making a parody of his song, "Gangster's Paradise".
UDon'tNeedToKnow1024
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 (site rank #25) | 6 |
| dxman | 5 |
| Paul Warren (site rank #35) | 4 |
| LPG-Unit | 2 |
| neptunevsmars | 2 |
| Margaret | 1 |
| Jim | 1 |
| Shelby | 1 |
| Rocky | 1 |
| Sutch (site rank #18) | 1 |
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