00:00This afternoon, a jury ruling against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, finding they copied a Marvin Gaye classic.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the songs that have led their creators facing major legal battles, mostly for alleged copyright infringement.
00:17Number 10, Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars.
00:21This funky number has led to some funky lawsuits, plural.
00:33The song had been accused of similarities with 1979's Oops, Upside Your Head by the Gap Band.
00:38Other songs the composition was alleged to take from included a Serbian song, the electro-funk Young Girls from 1983, and the sequences Funk You Up.
00:51Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, sit back down.
00:56The song has also been accused of being similar to Zapp's 1980, More Ounce to the Bounce.
01:01While many of the lawsuits have been dropped, the Gap Band did receive 17% of the publishing royalties, with Rudolph Taylor and producer Lonnie Simmons receiving credit as co-writers.
01:10You don't mess with the 80s.
01:11Say it loud!
01:21Number 9, Shape of You, Ed Sheeran.
01:34This blockbuster hit was the first one to hit 2 billion streams on Spotify, but it may not have been a completely original composition.
01:41It wasn't long before musicians Sammy Chokri and Ross O'Donohue accused Sheeran of using lines from their 2015 song, Oh Why.
01:51By 2022, the parties were in court.
02:05That said, the two songs are different in melody except the background chorus, O-I and O-Y respectively.
02:11It's a very slight similarity that could be due to coincidence.
02:14In April 2022, the judge ruled in Sheeran's favor.
02:17Come and now, follow my lead.
02:20I'm in love with the shape of you.
02:23We push and pull like a magnet, too.
02:25Although my heart is falling, too.
02:28I'm in love with your body.
02:30Number 8, Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr.
02:33If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?
02:40Ghostbusters!
02:40The theme song from the 1984 film Ghostbusters was a big hit and was even nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars.
02:49Unfortunately, it was also hit with a plagiarism lawsuit, claiming the song takes its melody from the song I Want a New Drug by Huey Lewis in the news.
02:56I want a new drug, one that does what it should, one that won't make me feel too bad, one that won't make me feel too good.
03:06The filmmakers did admit they used the song as temporary background music.
03:10They even wanted to hire the band to write the theme song, but they refused.
03:13Though it's not an exact copy, the similarities are there for sure.
03:17Ray Parker Jr. settled the case out of court with a confidentiality agreement and an undisclosed sum.
03:21Busting ghosts is a tricky business.
03:31Number 7, Come Together, The Beatles.
03:45This song opened this band's legendary Abbey Road album of 1969.
03:49Even so, it may have in places copied You Can't Catch Me by Chuck Berry, both melodically and lyrically.
03:56The Beatles essentially slowed down the song and made some other changes musically and kept some of the lyrics.
04:09In 1973, the case was settled out of court, with John Lennon promising to cover three classic rock and roll numbers in his album.
04:16This album became 1975's rock and roll, but Lennon withholding one of the songs from release led to another legal contention.
04:23Nobody came together for this song.
04:25Come together, right now, over me.
04:34Number 6, Barbie Girl, Aqua.
04:36Of course, if you're going to write a song about Barbie, Mattel is going to get involved.
04:48In 1997, the company sued MCA over the band Aqua's song, Barbie Girl, claiming it violated their trademark and misrepresented the doll.
04:56The court dismissed the case, as the song was obviously a parody protected under fair use.
05:00The judge, funny enough, concluded his ruling, saying, the parties are advised to chill.
05:05And in 2009, Mattel had the chutzpah to use the song in its advertisements with changed lyrics.
05:11You can be a star, no matter who you are.
05:15Be an inspiration, make a decoration.
05:19In 2023, the soundtrack of the film Barbie included Nicki Minaj's Barbie World, with the melody playing in the background.
05:25The parties, indeed, did not chill.
05:27Like Jazzy, Stacey, Ricky, all of the Barbies is pretty, all of the Barbies is bad, it, girls, and we ain't playing tag.
05:35Number 5, Surfing USA, The Beach Boys.
05:40If everybody had an ocean, across the USA, then everybody'd be surfing, like California.
05:52This is a more straightforward case of copyright infringement.
05:55The band has always been open about using Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen as the basis for its classic surfing song.
06:01Sure enough, the songs have nearly the same rhythm and melody.
06:04Still, the band's record did not credit Berry until 1966, with the release of the album, Best of the Beach Boys.
06:21Berry had no hard feelings over the copying, though.
06:24It even stated he loved The Beach Boys' lyrical rewrite.
06:26Brian Wilson was credited as writing the lyrics, although in 2015, Mike Love claimed to have worked together with Wilson to make the song into a surfing one.
06:34All's well that ends well, we guess.
06:36All over the head, inside, outside USA, inside, outside, everybody's got surfin', surfin' USA.
06:46Number 4, Bittersweet Symphony, The Verve.
06:51Cause it's a bittersweet symphony that's live.
07:00This song indeed leaves a bittersweet aftertaste.
07:03It turns out Virgin Records had acquired the rights for The Verve to use a sample of the Rolling Stones' The Last Time from Decca Records,
07:10particularly the orchestral version by the Andrew Oldman Orchestra.
07:13However, the company did not obtain permission from the Rolling Stones' manager, who refused to give it.
07:26Bittersweet Symphony, in short, borrowed more heavily from the Stones than was agreed upon, including the melody.
07:31The lawsuit had devastating consequences, with The Verve forced to relinquish 100% of their royalties and credit to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
07:39In 2019, both royalties and credit were given back to songwriter Richard Ashcroft.
07:44Ugh, what a mess.
07:45Well, I've never prayed, but tonight I'm on my knees, yeah.
07:56Number 3, My Sweet Lord, George Harrison.
07:59I really wanna see you, I'd like to see you, Lord.
08:08I wanna see you, Lord.
08:10It takes so long, my Lord.
08:13In 1971, Bright Tunes Music Corporation sued Harrison for allegedly copying Ronnie Mack's He's So Fine when creating his massive 1970 hit.
08:22To make matters worse, The Chiffons, who had a big hit with Mack's song in 1963, re-recorded it in 1975.
08:29The similarities musically are there, although the difference in subject and emotion are really different.
08:47This led to a truly contentious lawsuit, with Bright Tunes rejecting Harrison's offer of 40% of the royalties.
08:53Harrison claimed he had been inspired by the hymn, Oh Happy Day.
08:56Finally, by the 1990s, Harrison was found liable, although due to shenanigans by the other party, he was only forced to pay half a million dollars.
09:04He also received the rights to He's So Fine.
09:06Incredible.
09:06Number 2.
09:20Ice Ice Baby
09:21Vanilla Ice
09:22This big hit led to a big lawsuit.
09:38The song was accused of ripping off Queen and David Bowie's 1981 song, Under Pressure.
09:42Even to the untrained ear, it's hard to miss the identical bass line in both.
09:46Though Robert Van Winkle, Vanilla Ice's real name and one of the songwriters, claims he added some variation.
09:54He did admit he came up with the idea of sampling the Queen's song after exploring his brother's old records.
10:07The case was settled out of court, with Bowie and Queen receiving songwriter credit, and Van Winkle required to pay recompense to the songwriters.
10:14If there was a problem, throw, I'll solve it.
10:16Check out the hook while DJ revolves it.
10:18Ice Ice Baby
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10:36Number 1.
10:37Blurred Lines
10:38Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell
10:40This wildly controversial hit, accused of glorifying sexual violence, was accused of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye's Gotta Give It Up and Funkadelic's Sexy Ways.
10:50I just wanna say that I need you in so many ways, baby, you'll turn it on, oh, you'll turn it on.
10:59In response, Thicke et al filed a complaint against the Gaye family and Bridgeport Music.
11:04They claimed that Blurred Lines and Gotta Give It Up only share the same genre, not melody.
11:08The judge, however, found significant similarities between the two, and the appeal upheld that decision.
11:28Musicians were not happy with this development.
11:30With over 200 musicians signing their support for the appeal, you could say there are a lot of blurred lines when it comes to copyright law.
11:36If you can't read from the same page
11:40Maybe I'm going deaf, maybe I'm going blind, maybe I'm out of my mind
11:46Which other song do you know had a contentious lawsuit?
11:50Let us know in the comments down below.
11:52This is ourselves
11:55Under pressure
11:58This is ourselves
11:58We're able to get clips around
12:00This has been torrent
12:00This has been torrent
12:02This has been torrent
12:03The way
12:03We'll be too late
12:04This has been torrent
12:05We'lllong
12:06So
12:06Now
12:08This is our
12:08Sneak
12:09It's out
12:09This
12:11The name
12:13We're
12:15We'll
12:16After
12:17This
12:17We'll
12:17We'll
12:18Put
12:19This
12:21We'll
12:21box
12:21This
12:23We'll
12:24Have
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