# Lets sue because you play our songs better. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 24, 2007, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597 "2007-11-24T11:41:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/41 "2007-11-24T17:11:14Z")
Might as well toss [Ray Repp vs. Andrew Lloyd Webber](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/235906.stm) into this thread. Cause you know, he used the same _chords_ that I did. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/42 "2007-11-24T17:15:04Z")
If The Romantics give permission to use a cover of their song, and it is readily identified as a cover, it could lead people to want to buy the original version. If, on the other hand, the cover sounds exactly like the original, people will assume they already _have_ the original, and not bother to seek out and purchase the actual original. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/43 "2007-11-24T17:23:59Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] Ok, I’ll give ya that. But where does it say that when cover songs are done, that they must be subpar to the original? [/QUOTE] I don’t think the issue is “better” or “worse”. I think the issue is “distinguishable from the original”. Presumably, the Romantics could have licensed their actual performance of the song to Activision. Either they chose not to, or Activision didn’t request a licence to the actual performance. I would assume that licensing the actual Romantics recording would be significantly more expensive. I would imagine that the dispute is over the difference of those two licensing fees. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/44 "2007-11-24T18:15:11Z")
Re: Ghostbusters/I Want a New Drug Before this thread I didn’t know that there was actually accusations of song stealing there, but my 80s cover band has played both songs, and sometimes we’ll do a medley of the two, which basically involves singing different words over the verses, and alternating choruses. They are indeed very, very similar songs, in style, arrangement, harmonically, and melodically (both in the vocals and in the bass line). ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/45 "2007-11-24T18:30:45Z")
[QUOTE=Eonwe] Re: Ghostbusters/I Want a New Drug . . . my 80s cover band has played both songs, and sometimes we’ll do a medley of the two, which basically involves singing different words over the verses, and alternating choruses. [/QUOTE] Anyone else have a craving to hear this? Eonwe, does your band have a website, by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/46 "2007-11-24T18:39:35Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] Anyone else have a craving to hear this? Eonwe, does your band have a website, by any chance? [/QUOTE] Heh. No recordings, sadly. If we pull one together at some point I’ll definitely post it. You can almost get the same effect by just playing both songs on two different stereos at the same time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/47 "2007-11-24T19:08:10Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] Someone also forgot to tell The Romantics that Guitar Hero leads to increased album sales: [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071121-your-song-in-guitar-hero-equals-a-big-jump-in-digital-sales.html](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071121-your-song-in-guitar-hero-equals-a-big-jump-in-digital-sales.html) [/QUOTE] WTF? That graph seems to clearly show that the release of guitar hero coincided with a slowing of the sales of Sleeping, The Stroke and Beastie Boys. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/48 "2007-11-24T19:18:26Z")
> [@](#): > > slowing of the sales Or rather a slowing in the increase of the sales. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/49 "2007-11-24T19:20:43Z")
[QUOTE=The Tof] \ … John Fogerty was sued for plaigerizing himself. It was his first solo album after leaving Creedence, and he got sued by the record company that still had Creedence under contract. It doesn’t say in the Wiki, but I believe Fogerty won. I think I saw on VH1 that he actually played his guitar on the witness stand. > **[John Fogerty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fogerty)** > > John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty, he founded the swamp rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), for which he was the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter. CCR had nine Top 10 singles and eight gold albums between 1968 and 1972, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. > Since CCR parted ways in 1972, Fogerty has had a successful so... [/QUOTE] It was the suit in which Fantasy Records claimed that “The Old Man Down The Road” was a copy of “Run Through The Jungle.” Fogerty not only won, but Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. became precedent when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings in 1993 and awarded attorneys’ fees to Fogerty, without Fogerty having to show that Zaentz’s original suit was frivolous. At the risk of continuing the hijack (apologies for starting it), when the theme to Ghostbusters originally came out, my first thought _was_, “He’s ripping off _I Want A New Drug_.” You don’t even need a trained musical ear to hear the similarities. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/50 "2007-11-24T19:21:02Z")
There was music on the radio when I was first reading this thread, so I couldn’t make my brain compare the songs, but now that it’s quiet, I can totally hear it in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/51 "2007-11-24T19:40:49Z")
[QUOTE=F. U. Shakespeare] Gee, maybe if Howlin’ Wolf (or some other equally influential blues singer) were still alive, Waits could sue him for copying his style before Waits was born. [/QUOTE] 🙂 Retroactive plagiarism! I like the way you think! And here I was worried about RIAA lawyers running out of work… ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/52 "2007-11-24T19:53:18Z")
[Article](http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2007/04/article_0002.html) that discusses various issues relating to “distinctiveness of musical identity.” Part of the issue in the Waits and Midler cases is that using a soundalike may establish a “false endorsement” where the general public may assume that the real person endorses the product because it confuses them with the soundalike. Which is why you see/hear “celebrity voice impersonated” disclaimers on ads that use voices that even resemble a celebrity’s. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/53 "2007-11-24T20:03:52Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] [Article](http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2007/04/article_0002.html) that discusses various issues relating to “distinctiveness of musical identity.” Part of the issue in the Waits and Midler cases is that using a soundalike may establish a “false endorsement” where the general public may assume that the real person endorses the product because it confuses them with the soundalike. Which is why you see/hear “celebrity voice impersonated” disclaimers on ads that use voices that even resemble a celebrity’s. [/QUOTE] Exactly. Tom Waits hates advertising in general, and he was extra-peeved that the song “Step Right Up,” which was meant as a tongue-in-cheek indictment of common advertising jingle cliches, was used to sell a product without his approval. In that case, the musician who performed the soundalike version of Waits’ “Step Right Up” for the Doritos commercial eventually testified against Frito-Lay because he was such a fan of Tom Waits and so indebted to him for vocal style and musical inspiration. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/54 "2007-11-24T20:08:15Z")
[QUOTE=Plynck] 🙂 Retroactive plagiarism! I like the way you think! And here I was worried about RIAA lawyers running out of work… [/QUOTE] I’m here evoking the late comedian Bill Hicks, who was understandably bitter about the fact that Denis Leary basically stole his routine, gutted it enough to make it mainstream, and thereby became known as the originator. Hicks’ comment: "It’s true – I stole Denis Leary’s act. But I camouflauged it by adding punchlines. And then, to really throw people off… _I did it ten years before he did!"_ ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/55 "2007-11-24T21:22:34Z")
Color me amazed that anyone could _not_ notice the similarity between IWAND and Ghostbusters. I never heard Lewis’ song until a few years after Ghostbusters, and I immediately thought: “Hey, that sounds like a rock version of Ghostbusters.” They’re not exactly the same - tempo-wise they’re quite different - but I hear the same rhythm guitar and bassline. (Don’t listen to the signature keyboard riff from Ghostbusters, but the bass and rhythm track are the same.) Continuing the hijack, did anyone notice that Peter Schilling’s “The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime)” sounds a lot like New Order’s “True Faith?” ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/56 "2007-11-24T21:58:06Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] Continuing the hijack, did anyone notice that Peter Schilling’s “The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime)” sounds a lot like New Order’s “True Faith?” [/QUOTE] That’s just crazy. Next you’ll say he ripped off David Bowie or something. ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597/57 "2007-11-24T22:17:51Z")
At least some of the artists “re-using” material 'fess up and pay the royalties. When John Legend came out with the song “Save Room”, it was almost exactly a copy of “Stormy” which was written by Buddy Buie and James B. Cobb Jr. (recorded by Classics IV), with new lyrics. Even the instrumentation, specifically the organ sound, was a ripoff of the original. But when it was challenged by Buie, they quickly settled for paying 50% of the income from that track. Buie says, “No lawyers were involved”. (Although Legend still claims that he never heard the original. :rolleyes: ) (story [here](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217220,00.html), about halfway down the page) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-sue-because-you-play-our-songs-better/427597.md?page=2)