Monday, September 17, 2007

Musical Monday......

Well well well....What a difference a week makes eh? From the depths of dispair and an 0-2 record...To a 38-0 thumping of Mighty Notre Dame, one of your top 3 rivals throughout history!
(Behind The Buckeyes and Spartans of course)...Life is starting to smell sweet again!
Speaking of sweet, as most of you know, me and my best-friend Alex do a lot of coffee drinking and road cruising, and herbal testing. Last evening while cruising, drinking, and testing, I heard a great old tune from the 60's on the oldies station.."He's So Fine" by the Chiffons..That leads me to my topic for this Musical Monday...Copy-Cats.
George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" casually borrowed the melody from that 1963 hit by The Chiffons, written by Ronald Mack. The strangest aspect of that case was that Mack was dead at the time his estate pressed charges and won. But what was stranger yet? Although George had to pay, he was absolved of plagiarism...according to the judge, it was "unconscious plagiarism"
And speaking of The Beatles, their version of "Kansas City" was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller when it came out in 1964. But it turned out that The Beatles had recorded a medley of "Kansas City" and "Hey Hey Hey", A Little Richard composition that originally appeared on the B-Side of his 1956 hit..."Good Golly Miss Molly". It took Little Richard about 20 years to catch on to this, but when he did, it paid him about $500,000.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
The "Ghostbusters" theme song, by Ray Parker Jr., sounded an awful lot like "I Want a New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News..And sure enough, it turns out that the films producers wanted Lewis to pen the theme song. But when he refused, they hired Parker to write something similar the Huey's hit. I guess it was similar...The case was settled out of court!!
Surfin USA...
The Beach Boy's big hit of 1963 sounded vaguely familiar to Chuck Berry, and should have....
He wrote the melody!! Brian Wilson had simply stolen it from Berry's 1958 hit "Sweet Little Sixteen". Berry's publisher sued on his behalf, and won. Berry now owns 100% of the rights to his own tune, and to "Surfin USA"..
I hope that everyone has a glorious week, and if you don't....
Who Ya Gonna Call????
Peace!

19 comments:

Serena said...

Yeah, baby, WHAT a difference a week makes! I hear Notre Dame's going back to training camp. Yowzer!

I knew about the Harrison/Chiffons deal, but not the others you mentioned. Now that I have the tunes running through my head, yeah, I can see it. What on earth were they thinking?!
xoxo

G-Man said...

SERENA!!!!
The Quintilla!!!
You my Dear have just set a record.....
Thanks for being so loyal, you are Magnifico!
xoxbgxoxoxox

lime said...

and didja ever notice how similar the ABC song and twinkle twinkle little star are?? how bou tthem apples! hehehe

good post, i do remmeber some of the stink about these various tunes.

snowelf said...

Happy Monday Morning, G-man!! You know, I knew that Huey Lewis thing, but I don't think the melodies are that similar, really. JMO.

Regardless, who you gonna call?
;)
--snow

S said...

Congrats on the win, buddy!

Gosh everyones so witty today..have a great Monday! : D

Kelly said...

My sports team is holding on to a thread for the wild card spot. : (

*Check out my big blog announcement.

Breazy said...

Hey G! How the heck are ya? I don't want to talk football right now, my beloved Vols are making fools of themselves. I guess all of us Vol fans need to face the music, so to speak, that our team just doesn't have the talent it use to have.

I am trying to make my usual Monday rounds while I am off work. I miss visiting all of you when I want or when I can,I feel as if I am neglecting friends by not getting over here as much as I would like.

I hope you have a great week!

xoxo

barman said...

Just perfect. Now if only I can claim someone copied a song I wrote!

I guess I better get started writing a song. :)

It is going to be a shakey season this year. Heck even the Buckeyes are not doing as well as I would have expected. We will see where we go with this.

Anonymous said...

We won't even get into all the rip offs that took place when sampling became popular.Oi Vey!
Happy Musical Monday.
tc

SignGurl said...

I wasn't aware of any of those borrowed songs.

You are too smart!

GAB said...

Wow The things you learn here. See now for me I would have gladly gone on believeing that each song was done by the person who sang it. Live and learn. OBTW I too am guilty of "stealing" a song or two. My "Grandma loves you" song sounds a lot like "are you sleeping" And my Song You make me very happy is a song I stoled and changed a few words to make it special to my grandchildren. Hope I dont get sued!lol

Little Wing said...

So you are telling me that my beloved Beatles were dishonest???!!!!
God that makes me want to throw myself under a train!
Happy Musical Monday Oh Wise One!
Hugs!

tsduff said...

I used to wonder when I was a teenager, how ANYONE could just think up songs and melodies out of nothing. It boggles my mind - even now, because how could it just not have already been done with so many composers running around? I love Harrison's "My Sweet Lord", but I also love "He's So Fine"... what's a person to do? And I'm a big Huey Lewis fan. Great and interesting post Galen!

Reverend Michael Kilgore said...

you really ARE Mr. Know-it-all, aren't you! Congrats on Michigan's win...

G-Man said...

Lime...
You also are a font of info!!
Ms. Knowitall..hahaha
Thanks..xoxox

Snowelf,
I didn't think that they were similar either!
I'm gonna call you!!
later Baby..xoxox

Susie,
Thanks sweetie, I didn't think we were ever gonna get that first win..xox

Myutopia,
I'll be right over...
Thanks..xox

Missy,
Thanks...
Have fun camping sweetie.
xoxox

Breazy,
The Vols have the same record as Michigan!
I can feel your pain..
Thanks for stopping by..
Galen xoxox

Barman...
Finally !!~!~!!!!
We shall see what the Nittany Lions do to us!!

TC,
Hey Mr. Cat...
Finally, an all win Michigan week-end Eh?
Thanks for stopping by!

SignGurl,
You are way too kind to The G-Man...xoxox

Gabby,
Nobody would sue such a sweet thing as you!!!
xoxox

Jadey,
Thanks Baby...
I think I'll stsrt calling you..Young wise one!! xoxox

Terry,
I love Musical Monday's, because I know I'll usually see you here!!
Have a great week..
xoxox

Mike,
Thanks Brother..
I appreciate that!!
Galen

Charles said...

Yo, Dude.
Hope alls well on your end. Don't be herbal sampling too much, that stuff affects the brain. Wouldn't want you being Mr UsedtoKnowitall.

Serena said...

Quintilla. Hmmm. That's a pirate term, isn't it? I think I saw Johnny Depp do that.:-)

Mona said...

Galen! I HATE your musical Monday post when I cannot understand it!

Only the 'hey hey hey' song made sense to me!

Can we talk about something more 'recent' next Monday. please?

morgetron said...

Did David Bowie ever sue Vanilla Ice?

-J

G-MAN! I MISSED YOU TOO!