Know any songs that were stolen?

[mobeau69]

Amy stole this one from Carol.

[mobeau69]

1. Beth stole this one from Bobby Bland and Etta James

[stonecutter357]

3. wow thanks for the video .

[mobeau69]

4. Have fun on your Beth Hart journey, Stonecutter

The rules are that you have to identify who the song was stolen from and it had to have been a big hit for the artist it was stolen from.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. Some more Beth for your pleasure

[mobeau69]

8. That's when I discovered her, Bushwhacker. At the Kennedy Center. Was blown away!

I went on youtube that evening and there was only a few videos of hers. The best had only about 1K or less views. I was stunned. I then drove from Chicagoland to Nashville (a little club for 15 bucks a ticket) and then the next year to CT and Philly just to see her. The joke was that no one knew who Beth Hart was back in those days. LOL. I think they know now!

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. That's when I discovered her too. N/t

[mobeau69]

12. And?

[stonecutter357]

2. Pull Me Under by Dream Theater / O'Keefe Music Foundation

[mobeau69]

5. Sweet Judy Blue Eyes stole this one from Ian and Sylvia Tyson and Suzy Boggus

[mobeau69]

7. Joe Cocker stole this from, well, you know who.

[mobeau69]

10. Yep, I'll play alone! LOL Another one stolen from Carol by her friend, Sweet Baby James.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. Since when is covering a song stealing?

[mobeau69]

14. It isn't.

"Stealing" means that the performer took it and made it their "own". They performed it to a level way above the original. It they didn't it's just a cover.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. Thank you.

I will say I find that an odd use of the word "stealing". I suppose it's been used this way for a decade now and somehow I managed to completely miss that usage.

[OriginalGeek]

24. yeah

I kinda thought "stolen" was unnecessarily pejorative.

I often enjoy covers and the originals and most often when the coverer goes over and above but not always. lol

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. Yes. Unnecessarily pejorative

is how I feel about using that word to refer to covers.

Plus, we may not all agree that a particular artist did the song best.

[Dr. Strange]

53. Under that definition, I'd offer this one.

[diva77]

15. seems to me the theme from the Simpsons was stolen from the Jetsons

Last edited Fri Sep 15, 2017, 04:24 AM - Edit history (1)

[NotASurfer]

16. Then there's actually stealing a song: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Flat-out stole a South African copyrighted song written decades earlier, the record company absolutely knew what they did & did it anyway, claimed it was an arrangement of a traditional song.

[JonLP24]

17. Ice Ice Baby

I believe it was really stolen rather than having permission to music.

[mobeau69]

18. Stolen from Dolly Parton

[unblock]

27. that's the ultimate on making someone else's song "your own".

i seem to recall dolly parton saying "she sure sang the stuffing out of that song", though i can't find a link to that quote.

[LisaM]

28. Yes!!! Yes!!! Whitney took Dolly Parton's exquisite ballad and shrieked all the nuance out of it!

After Whitney Houston died, I was actually really upset that they chose Jennifer Hudson to sing it at the Grammy Awards instead of Dolly, who would have brought me to tears if she'd sung it. Jennifer Hudson gave her usual wooden performance (though the audience seemed to love it, and I had trouble bringing my online community to my side, too).

[cemaphonic]

67. The White Stripes did a surprisingly great cover of "Jolene"

[yallerdawg]

19. Stolen from Al Green.

[mobeau69]

35. Official Review

Just a cover. Still belongs to Al. (IMOOC)

[yallerdawg]

36. The rules:

"The rules are that you have to identify who the song was stolen from and it had to have been a big hit for the artist it was stolen from."

Wiki:

"Let's Stay Together" was later covered by Tina Turner... and served as her comeback single in late 1983...

It placed number 6 in the UK (one place higher than Al Green's original) and became the third time she reached the UK top ten, the first two being with former husband Ike Turner on "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Nutbush City Limits". Tina Turner's version also hit number one on the US Dance Chart.

[mobeau69]

37. OK. I guess I stand corrected.

I do think the vast majority would think of Al first when asked "who sang it?"

[yallerdawg]

40. I thought Marvin Gaye wrote it!

All I knew was that it was a cover - a great MTV video at the time! - and is an iconic Tina Turner standard!

[mobeau69]

41. I found this, dawg...

Al Green wrote this with Al Jackson Jr., a legendary Soul drummer who recorded with Booker T. & the MG's; and Willie Mitchell, who was Green's producer.

[lastlib]

21. Only Carole King should be allowed to do Carole King songs.

(Okay, exception for James Taylor. But no one else!)

[LisaM]

29. Except that Carole King started out as a songwriter for other artists.

She had to be talked into performing them herself. And, I don't want to deprive the world of Aretha singing "Natural Woman".

[nolabear]

38. Aretha shouldn't do Natural Woman?

Carol herself disagrees.

[Beausoleil]

22. An even better one stolen from Al Green

[kwassa]

44. and the band Beausoleil stole from many Cajun predecessors

[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. The start of "Stairway to Heaven" certainly sounds a lot like....

Spirit (band)

....
1960s

....
The band capitalized on the success of their first album with another single, "I Got a Line on You". Released in November 1968, a month before their second album, The Family That Plays Together, it became their biggest hit single, reaching number 25 on the charts (number 28 in Canada). The album matched its success, reaching number 22. In December, they appeared at the Denver Auditorium, with support band Led Zeppelin, who soon after interpolated parts of Spirit's song "Fresh Garbage" in an extended medley based around their cover of Bob Elgin and Jerry Ragavoy's "As Long As I Have You" (initially popularized by Garnet Mimms) during their early 1969 concerts. Spirit also appeared with Led Zeppelin at two outdoor music festivals in July 1969. Jimmy Page's use of a theremin has been attributed to his seeing Randy California use one that he had mounted to his amplifier. Guitar World magazine stated that "California's most enduring legacy may well be the fingerpicked acoustic theme of the song 'Taurus', which Jimmy Page was accused of lifted virtually note for note for the introduction to 'Stairway to Heaven'." Page may have reworked a riff from "Taurus" while composing "Stairway to Heaven"; The Independent noted the similarity in 1997. In 2014, Mark Andes and a trust acting on behalf of Randy California filed an unsuccessful copyright infringement suit against Led Zeppelin in an attempt to obtain a writing credit for "Stairway to Heaven". Page denied copying "Taurus", and the suit was unsuccessful.

Stairway to Heaven

....
Spirit copyright infringement lawsuit

Over the years, some people have considered that the song's opening guitar arpeggios bear a close resemblance to the 1968 instrumental "Taurus" by the Los Angeles-based rock band Spirit, written by Spirit guitarist Randy California. In the liner notes to the 1996 reissue of Spirit's self-titled debut album, California wrote: "People always ask me why "Stairway to Heaven" sounds exactly like "Taurus", which was released two years earlier. I know Led Zeppelin also played "Fresh Garbage" in their live set. They opened up for us on their first American tour."

In May 2014, Spirit bassist Mark Andes and a trust acting on behalf of California filed a copyright infringement suit against Led Zeppelin and injunction against the "release of the album containing the song" in an attempt to obtain a writing credit for California, who died in 1997. A lack of resources was cited as one of the reasons that Spirit did not file the suit earlier; according to a friend of California's mother, "Nobody had any money, and they thought the statute of limitations was done ... It will be nice if Randy got the credit." If the Spirit lawsuit had been successful, past earnings due to the song—estimated at more than US$550 million—would not have been part of the settlement, but the publisher and composers may have been entitled to a share of future profits.

On 11 April 2016, Los Angeles district judge Gary Klausner ruled that there were enough similarities between the song and the instrumental for a jury to decide the claim, and a trial was scheduled for 10 May. The copyright infringement action was brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late guitarist, whose legal name was Randy Wolfe. On 23 June, the jury ruled that the similarities between the songs did not amount to copyright infringement. In July, Skidmore's attorney filed a notice of appeal against the court's decision. In March 2017, the verdict was appealed, with a main argument being that the jury should have been able to hear a recorded version of "Taurus".

[argyl]

32. Spirit and Led Zeppelin were both at the Texas International Pop Festival.

Labor Day weekend, 1969.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. Cross-posted from the Roy Acuff birthday thread

http://www.thisdayinrock.com/index.php/general/1903-country-singer-roy-acuff-is-born-in-maynard/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Acuff

[Expecting Rain]

50. One more

[mahatmakanejeeves]

62. Thanks. You made me look it up.

"The Great Speckled Bird" is a hymn from the Southern United States whose lyrics were written by the Reverend Guy Smith. It is an allegory referencing Fundamentalist self-perception during the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy. The song is in the form of AABA and has a 12 bar count. It is based on Jeremiah 12 : 9, "Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour." It was recorded in 1936 by Roy Acuff. It was also later recorded by Johnny Cash and Kitty Wells (both in 1959), Pearly Brown (1961), Hank Locklin (1962), Marty Robbins (1966), Lucinda Williams (1978), Bert Southwood (1990), Marion Williams, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

The tune is the same apparently traditional melody used in the song "Thrills That I Can't Forget," recorded by Welby Toomey and Edgar Boaz for Gennett in 1925, and the song "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes," originally recorded by the Carter Family for Victor in 1929. The same melody was later used in the 1952 country hit "The Wild Side of Life," sung by Hank Thompson, and the even more successful "answer song" performed by Kitty Wells called "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" in the same year. A notable instrumental version is found on the Grammy Award-Nominated album 20th Century Gospel by Nokie Edwards and The Light Crust Doughboys on Greenhaw Records.

The connection between these songs is noted in the David Allan Coe song "If That Ain't Country" that ends with the lyrics "I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes/ Concerning a great speckled bird/ I didn't know God made honky-tonk angels/ and went back to the wild side of life."

The song is also referenced, and portions of the melody-line are used, in "When the Silver Eagle Meets the Great Speckled Bird" by Porter Wagoner.

"Something to Love", by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit references the song when speaking of learning music: "They taught me how to make the chords and sing the words. I'm still singing like that great speckled bird."

Both the song "The Great Speckled Bird" and the passage from Jeremiah may be a poetic description of mobbing behavior.

So now we need videos or audio recordings of "Thrills That I Can't Forget" and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes."

Thanks again.

[Expecting Rain]

63. Love the Carter Family

[mahatmakanejeeves]

64. It's on "Will the Circle be Unbroken" too.

"Will the Circle be Unbroken" is one of the most glorious things ever released on vinyl.

Doc Watson initialed my copy at Wolf Trap nearly thirty years ago. Well, I am told he did. I handed the album to one of his personnel, who disappeared with it. A few moments later, back it came with a big black "W" applied with a felt-tip marker on it.

[Expecting Rain]

65. One of my Desert Island picks.

I love that album.

[TlalocW]

30. Oh, so many

Especially in rap where they take the entire melody of a song and put new words to it. MC Hammer's, "U Can't Touch This" is Rick James' "Superfreak;" Vanilla Ice's, "Ice Ice Baby," is, "Under Pressure," by Queen; P. Diddy et. al.'s, "Missing You," is the Police's, "Every Breath You Take."

That last one is supposed to be a tribute song to the Notorious B.I.G. "Here, dude... sorry you died, but I wrote a song for you... I couldn't be bothered with the tune though."

Kink's, "All Day and All of the Night," copied by the Doors', "Hello, I Love You."

Recently Sam Smith's, "Stay with Me," had a lot of similarities with, Tom Petty's, "I Won't Back Down," and Robin Thicke's, "Blurred Line," stole from Marvin Gaye's, "Gotta Give It Up."

Lady Gaga's, "Born This Way," had a lot of similarities to Madonna's, "Express Yourself." Weird Al's parody video even had an incredulous looking Madonna-lookalike looking at his Lady Gaga character like, "WTF," in it.

TlalocW

[Initech]

31. There's a new lawsuit alleging Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk is a ripoff

Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson have been sued for copyright infringement over their hit single “Uptown Funk,” TMZ reports. The complaint, obtained by Pitchfork, was filed by the Minneapolis electro-funk band Collage. They claim that Ronson and Mars’ single “is an obvious, strikingly and/or substantially similar copy” of Collage’s 1983 single “Young Girls.” The complaint also notes that Ronson and Mars have talked about how “Uptown Funk” was influenced by early 1980s Minneapolis electro-funk soul music. Collage are seeking damages and profits.
https://pitchfork.com/news/69413-mark-ronson-and-bruno-mars-sued-over-uptown-funk/

[kwassa]

45. Actually, I thought it sounded more like Morris Day and the Time

speaking of Minneapolis funk. And George Clinton, and the earlier funk masters.

Collage did not invent this style at all.

[sakabatou]

34. Rui Nagai stole this from Queen

[Zorro]

39. Here's one that brings back memories

[mobeau69]

42. Everybody was playing it backwards.

[DFW]

43. Yeah! One of mine!

The first album I ever recorded had a piece I had composed while in the Boston area in 1970. I played it on a 12 string guitar with a flat pick. I had performed it a few times both in Boston and in Philadelphia. You can imagine my shock when 6 years later, I heard the band BOSTON on the radio with their big hit "More Than A Feeling" using EXACTLY my piece as the intro.

[CTyankee]

46. Paul Simon stole "O Sacred Head now Wounded" for his "American Anthem." Check

it out...

[mobeau69]

47. No question about it.

I was sorta sad when I learned that. But, what the hell, Samuel Francis Smith stole "God Save the Queen" for "America".

[Mendocino]

48. Draft Morning

David Crosby developed it for the Byrds. Around the Fall of 67 Crosby, was fired by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, mostly for being a jackass. McGuinn and Hillman reworked it, adding new lyrics because they couldn't even remember all the words. It was cobbled together into Draft Morning on the album The Notorious Bryrd Brothers.

Now I love the song but it was definitely stolen.

[Tikki]

49. From the Rivingtons.....

https://m.

#



Tikki

[mobeau69]

55. The Bird is the Word

[Tikki]

57. My favorite Era of basketball..men in short shorts making the impossible...

come alive.

I love basketball and 'the BIRD' was a grand part of it.


Tikki

[Miles Archer]

51. This one was stolen several times from Chuck Berry

I still think Chuck's original is perfect, but...

...listen to the razor-sharp precision of Dave Edmunds' guitar playing on this one:

Bob Seger did a pretty good job of it on his "Live Bullet" album, although I wouldn't say he "stole" it...

Jerry Garcia slowed it down and went for more of a groove than a riff...also maybe not quite stealing, but amusing nonetheless...

In the last couple of years, the Stones have released a few Mick Taylor archive concerts where they definitely stole it...

And finally, Motörhead on David Letterman, gloriously sloppy, worth it for Letterman's closing comments alone ("OK, that was great, but if you boys ever do that again, we're going to have to close the teen center&quot :

[Boomerproud]

52. I donlt know if you can call it "stealing"-but I didn't pay much attention to Amy until

I saw this on YouTube and was absolutely blown away by it. A great version of a great song. Period.

[Brother Buzz]

54. R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders totally ripped off Charley Jordan's 'Keep it Clean'

[TexasBushwhacker]

56. There's a difference between stealing and covering

Amy covered it, and it was originally written for The Shirelles, who recorded it in 1960. Carole didn't record it herself until '71.

[mobeau69]

58. Yep, a lot of songs are covered by a lot of artists. Not so many do it so well

that it becomes their "own". This one's like "Both sides, now". Joni Mitchell wrote it but didn't record it until after Judy Collins did.

Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Carol King and Carly Simon; don't know which one I loved the most back in the day!

Thanks for posting the video, Bushwacker! These old videos are treasures.

[Xipe Totec]

59. Norah Jones-The Long Way Home

[Orrex]

60. All Along the Watchtower belongs to Jimi Hendrix

Me and Bobby McGee belongs to Janis Joplin.

While we're at it, Nick Cave might as well have stolen Stagger Lee, because I can't imagine whose version is going to top his take on it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

61. Eric Clapton stole "I Shot the Sheriff" from Bob Marley

[Iggo]

66. In my opinion, this one.

Ownership transferred, man.

[HarmonyRockets]

68. Dazed and Confused by Led Zepplin was completely stolen

And I don't mean it's just a cover. They never gave credit to the original musician and passed it off as their own for decades.

Also, George Harrison stole the song He's So Fine by The Chiffons (who sued and won over it) and made it into his "My Sweet Lord." Harrison said that he stole the song subconsciously.