I happened to hear the opening theme song to Sunday Night Football Tonight (sung by a blonde country-rock sounding girl whom I don’t recognize), and the first part of it was the same melody as the late 1980’s song by Joan Jett, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”. I mean, exactly the same.
Was this a cooperative writing effort, ala the sampling that rappers do (in which case I assume a settlement was arrived at)?
It’s a pretty basic melody, but it’s eight bars long.
In a world where ASCAP shuts down bars and forces chain restaurants to quit singing “Happy Birthday to You”, I’d hope some shark would get Joan some money. (But that’s another subject – as you can tell, I’m not exactly in love with ASCAP, who more often represent publishers than songwriters).
The Beach Boys had to payoff Chuck Barry for using Sweet Little Sixteen’s melody for Surfin’ USA. I’m sure that Jett (or whoever wrote that song for her) is getting royalties.
[slight hijack] Who was the hot blond babe that sang it last year? She was so much hotter than the plastic Barbie stick girl that does it this year. [/slight hijack]
According to NBC, the opening theme to NBC Sunday Night Football is indeed a rewritten version of I Hate Myself For Loving You, which is listed as being written by Desmond Child (ASCAP member) and Joan Jett (BMI member). So it seems likely that they’re getting paid for this.
I just can’t figure out why they picked that song to use as a theme song. When I hear it, I recognize the melody immediately, and I don’t think of it as the whatever-it-is theme song but as,“I Hate Myself For Loving You”. That isn’t exactly a positive association.
Oh well. It’s football. There seem to be all sorts of dumb marketing stunts associated with it, and there’s not much we can do.
It’s kind of a relief to hear that the resemblance is intentional and acknowledged:
Background: this will sound snooty, but I have a very sharp sense of noting similarities between different melodies and chord progressions. Although I’ve developed a thicker skin, it used to really PO me when I would point something out, and be told I was nuts by people with less sense for such things.
When I heard the SNF theme, it was a 100% match, but I found it hard to believe it was intentional: I couldn’t imagine some marketing suit saying, “Yeah, pioneering female punk icons and the NFL – it’s a perfect match!” So I wondered if it was a “My Sweet Lord” deal (George Harrison acknowledged similarities of his song to “He’s So Fine” [recorded by the Chiffons], but claimed it was subconscious).
Presumably, said suit simply thought the melody shorn of its connection to the female punk icon would make a good theme song, and a deal was struck that benefitted her. Glad to hear.