Top 20 Most Infamous Rip Off Songs Ever

[Music] hey everyone i'm rebecca and welcome to watch mojo today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 rip-off songs [Music] there's that fogarty ruling anything you do from now on we own it for this list we're looking at songs that not only sound similar they sound so similar it prompted some form of legal action so what copycat song do you think is the most infamous let us know in the comments all right let's check it out number 20 the kinks all day in all of the night versus the doors hello i love you [Music] although the door's guitarist robbie krieger denied that his band copied the core driven main riff of the 1964 kinks track the king's music publishers found that these two singles were just a bit too similar turns out uk courts agreed so a deal was eventually struck entitling the kinks to a large share of hello i love you's british royalties [Music] the dora's song credits remain unchanged but in 2014 king's lead singer and main songwriter ray davey suggested to rolling stone that an out-of-court settlement had been reached number 19. tom petty i won't back down versus sam smith stay with me traditionally when songs popped up that sounded a bit tom petty the late heartbreaker's frontman let it slide but this time things played out [Music] differently although the bandleader expressed no hard feelings and deemed the similarities between the chorus to his i won't back down and smith stay with me to be quote a musical accident his publishing company entered the fray all the same won't you stay with me [Music] perhaps it was because unlike american girl and mary jane's last dance the tp track in question had a co-writer fellow traveling wilbury and elo songwriter jeff lynn in the end petty and lynn ended up getting their due credit along with 12.5 percent of the stay with me royalties number 18 joe satriani if i could fly versus coldplay viva la vida take notes on this one you're going to need them [Music] first up brooklyn-based indie alternative band creaky board suggested that coldplay had ripped off their ironically titled the songs i didn't write however the british rockers had recorded a demo of viva prior to that song's first [Music] performance then joe satriani stepped up lawsuit in hand claiming that chris martin and crew borrowed from his if i could fly things got even more complicated when use of islam formerly cat stevens joined in on the fun pointing out that all of these songs sounded like his foreigner suite satriani's case was later dismissed in 2009 number 17 the new seekers i'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony versus oasis shaker maker oasis has never tried to hide their reverence for the past when it comes to their own musical style but this is one case where noel gallagher may have borrowed a bit too much [Music] the song i'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony began its life as a coca-cola jingle before being fleshed out and recorded by the new seekers [Music] and ultimately having its melody and some lyrics woven into the fabric of oasis's shaker maker most sources claim that gallagher was forced to change the offending i'd like to teach the world line alter a few notes and cough up five hundred thousand dollars upon losing the aforementioned lawsuit gallagher quipped quote we drink pepsi now number sixteen muddy waters you need love versus led zeppelin whole lotta love by cranking the tempo and volume of the blues led zepp helped pioneer hard rock and heavy metal [Music] but sometimes they stuck just a bit too close to their roots [Music] while it took them a long time to get caught the rock icons were finally sued in 1985 for a whole lot of love's whole lot of similarities to the willie dixon penned muddy waters classic you need love [Applause] though things were eventually settled out of court it wasn't the only time the british rockers were accused of borrowing material as even stairway to heaven has been tainted by calls of plagiarism number fifteen the reubenos i wanna be your boyfriend versus april levine girlfriend [Music] when the rubidoux stepped up claiming avril lavigne had plagiarized them avril said reuben who but aside from claiming she'd never heard of the band or their song she and her team chose a risky defense [Music] they said girlfriend was actually closer to the rolling stones get off of my cloud or mickey but wait a minute what about the ramone song i want to be your boyfriend had the reuvenus themselves plagiarized ultimately a musicologist decided the reubenous track and avril's song were completely different based on science and the case was settled out of court when avril's manager decided it was cheaper than paying lawyers number 14 the kinks picture book versus the other garden never got the chance versus green day warning and now how not to file a lawsuit [Music] in 2001 colin mary songwriter for an obscure english band called the other garden [Music] [Applause] [Music] green day claiming that warning was a copy of his song never got the chance the band's lawyer threatened to sue the punk rockers for as much as one hundred thousand dollars despite the fact that mary admitted both his and green day songs had the same distinct riff as picture book by the kinks [Music] needless to say the lawsuit was eventually dropped number 13 larikan music's kookaburra vs men at work down under down under a backhanded anthem of all things ozzy and a monster hit in the early 1980s became a source of legal trouble in the 2000s originally the band's flautist greg hamm borrowed a two-bar motif from kookaburra an australian children's song years went by without incident until the connection between the two tunes was mentioned on the game show spicks and specs in 2007. that's when the right holders to kookaburra lyric and music came knocking kookaburra is sitting in the old gum tree demanding 60 of down under royalties dating back to 1981. in july 2010 they instead were granted 5 backdated to 2002. sadly ham passed away in 2012 at the age of 58 and bandmate colin haye cites stress from the court case as a contributing factor you know the fact of the matter is that it went unrecognized for 27 years because it was unconscious it was innocuous it was naive number 12. huey lewis in the news i want a new drug versus ray parker jr ghostbusters who you gonna call a lawyer if you're huey lewis lewis was actually asked to write a theme for ghostbusters but passed on it to write music for back to the future so when ray parker jr's theme for the supernatural comedy came out sounding suspiciously like huey's i want a new drug lewis cited plagiarism something strange in your neighborhood it was settled out of court almost a decade later and when the news front man spilled the beans on the confidential settlement on tv ray parker jr turned the tables and sued lewis right back in 2001. [Music] number eleven sleigh bells infinity guitars versus demi lovato stars [Music] typically only lyrics and melody are considered copyrightable for new york banned sleigh bells demi lovato's stars sounded quote virtually identical to their infinity guitars with a little bit of riot rhythm mixed in but it was chiefly the hand claps and bass drum counter rhythm that were cited it was on this basis that the duo laid a case against lovato umg recordings and producers and co-writers carl falk and ramy yakub the problem was falcon yakub claimed no samples were used in the song and that demi only wrote one line the matter was settled in april 2017 and lovato's team maintained there was no deliberate infringement [Music] number 10. credence clearwater revival run through the jungle versus john fogarty the old man down the road in a very odd move john fogarty was sued for sounding like himself [Music] fogarty was once the lead vocalist lead guitarist and primary songwriter of credence clearwater revival but after the band broke up he relinquished his rights to ccr songs to get out of contractual commitments so when fogerty released the solo track the old man down the road fantasy records owner of ccr's song catalog and his label during his credence days claimed it ripped off run through the jungle the swamp rocker beat the case by bringing a guitar to the stand and demonstrating that the two songs were in fact quite different and that you can't actually plagiarize yourself well played fogarty my songs tend to sound like my songs right number nine gordon jenkins crescent city blues versus johnny cash folsom prison blues in the annals of song plagiarism there have been cases of subconscious plagiarism outright plagiarism uncleared samples and downright sneakiness this is a case of self-amusement gone awry while stationed in west germany in 1953 johnny cash wrote new lyrics to the melody of crescent city blues inspired by the film inside the walls of folsom prison when i was just a baby my mama told me son flash forward a few years and cash is now a recording artist short on material so he offered up his folsom prison blues to producer sam phillips who told cash not to worry about the legalities [Music] 15 years later the men in black would pay out 75 000 in retribution number eight the rolling stones the last time versus the verve bittersweet symphony this 90s brit pop anthem was at the center of a lengthy and contentious plagiarism case [Music] the verve did obtain the rights to sample part of the andrew oldham orchestral version of the classic stone song the issue was how much the band used and according to former stone's manager and rights holder of the song alan klein it was way too much so 100 of the royalties went to klein and songwriting credit went to mick jagger and keith richards that's when oldham himself demanded recompense for the specific version of the song they had used though it took many years this story does have a relatively happy ending with the stones backing off by 2019 and granting all future royalties to verve lead singer richard ashcroft [Music] number 7. chuck berry you can't catch me versus the beatles come together [Music] the story starts simply enough john lennon used an old chuck berry song as a starting point for a new song but this similarity triggered legal issues with barry's publisher the controversial morris levy as repayment lennon agreed to record three songs owned by levy and attempted to do so during his rock and roll album sessions until producer phil spector stole the tapes and went into hiding when the tapes were recovered lennon tried reassuring levy that he was upholding his end of the deal by sharing a rough mix of his progress which levy released himself and chased with a 42 million dollar breach of contract lawsuit lenin emi and capital records countersued with levy being awarded a nominal 6795 while having to pay out somewhere in the ballpark of 150 000. number six the chiffons he's so fine versus george harrison my sweet lord soon after releasing his solo hit the first number one single by a former beatle george harrison found himself at the center of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by brighttunes [Music] harrison was accused of plagiarizing the ronnie mac pen song he's so fine the courts ruled that he had subconsciously copied the chiffon smash and would owe nearly 1.6 million dollars in damages but the story doesn't end there after harrison fired his manager the previously mentioned alan klein during the trial klein sees the opportunity to buy the copyright too he's so fine the courts ultimately decided that harrison would only have to pay klein's abco industries 587 thousand dollars and he ended up with the song's rights number five the hollies the air that i breathe versus radiohead creep this case is so open and shut it's almost dull [Music] [Applause] while writing creep ed o'brien pointed out to tom york that the song's bridge had the same chords as the air that i breathe so york decided to grab the song's melody too song's authors albert hammond and mike hazelwood then sued but were impressed by the band's honesty and settled for credits and a cut of the creep royalties it's a sharp contrast to 2018 when lana del rey would allege that radiohead's team noticed passing similarities to creep in her song get free and demanded 100 of her royalties number four marvin gaye gotta give it up versus robin thicke featuring t.i and pharrell williams blurred lines let's welcome one of the great talents in the history of popular music let's get your hands together gang for mr marvin gate in one of many controversies that plagued this summer hit robin thicke actually sued marvin gaye's family for alleging the singer had plagiarized the late soul artist while thick admitted he was inspired by gotta give it up he and co-writer pharrell williams contended that despite their similar vibe they were essentially not the same citing different chords keys and more [Music] bridgeport music also became involved due to claims that blurred lines sampled funkadelic's sexy ways [Music] despite lots of support from music industry heavyweights who did not believe you could copyright a feeling in 2018 a judge ordered thick and williams to pay nearly five million dollars to marvin gaye's estate number 3. chuck berry sweet little 16 versus the beach boys surfin usa here's an instance where the artist openly and knowingly used the tune to an existing song for his new composition [Music] brian wilson wanted to write a song about surfing and felt chuck berry sweet little 16 was the perfect setting for his surf-themed lyrics however he neglected to credit barry upon its recording and release [Music] although surfing usa was meant to be viewed as a tribute barry's publishing company was unimpressed and forced wilson's manager to surrender copyright to the rock and roll pioneer's publisher arc music number two multiple artists versus mark ronson uptown funk don't believe me just watch we guess it takes a village to write a hit song too before the monster hit that his uptown funk was even released bronson and company offered some credit to trinidad james after it was released the gap band came knocking claiming similarities to their oops upside your head followed by the sequence collage and finally zap in september of 2017 additionally serbian artist victoria has alleged that the song lifts elements from one of her songs by 2018 17 of the track's royalties were transferred to the gap band while the credits have ballooned from ronson bruno mars jeff basker and philip lawrence to include six additional songwriters from their respective groups so many interesting stories on this list in my opinion as you probably know ghostbusters and back to the future are two of my most favorite movies so that is definitely an interesting one for me but i also really think that the john fogerty ripping off himself story is very weird anyway our number one pick involves two songs i know we all know so let's look through some honorable mentions and then we'll name the top copycat song david bowie boys keep swinging versus blur [Music] more killing joke 80s versus nirvana come as you are [Music] brian pringle take a dive versus black-eyed peas i got a feeling [Music] want more music content watchmojo produces an original podcast taking a behind-the-scenes look at all things music the show provides authentic interviews with artists from all around the world while also staying true to watch mojo's roots with top 10 music banter thrown into the mix what's the best advice alice cooper's ever given you looking back at the staying power does it shock you oh no we have naked pictures of the right people if you want exclusive interviews with award-winning artists producers singers songwriters check out inner sleeve number one queen and david bowie under pressure versus vanilla ice ice ice baby it takes about seven notes to recognize ice ice baby for what it is while the signature baseline amounts to a sample vanilla ice never sought permission to use it and instead said his tinkering with the riff and adding one note made it original [Music] but in the face of legal action the rapper caved and granted david bowie as well as all four members of queen due credit and [Music] in royalties ice claimed to have bought under pressure outright however the song's publishing info shows that it's co-owned by companies representing queen bowie and emi music making isis claim a bit dubious [Music] after i read this list i was humming a song and i legitimately could not decide if i was humming viva la vita by coldplay or joe satriani or the creaky board song they all sound so similar i really didn't know anyway be sure to let us know in the comments which song makes you think there really are no new ideas anymore come tell me on twitter or instagram rebecca brayton or come tell me on my youtube channel see ya 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Channel: WatchMojo.com

Views: 841,280

Rating: 4.8760247 out of 5

Keywords: Music, Pop, chuck berry, coldplay, copycat music, copycat songs, david bowie, george harrison, green day, list, marvin gaye, mojo, most famous samples, music samples, oasis, pharrell, queen, radiohead, ripoff hits, ripoff music, ripoff songs, songs that got ripped off, songs that rip off other hits, songs that ripoff other songs, songs that sample other songs, the beatles, the kinks, the rolling stones, top 10, vanilla ice, watch mojo, watchmojo

Id: 1ThCRDWGbb8

Length: 23min 0sec (1380 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021