Rock 'n' Roll Ripoffs: 10 Cases of Music Plagiarism, From Blatant to Bizarre (Part 2)

The Song: John Fogerty's "The Old Man Down the Road"
Stolen From: Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through the Jungle"
What Happened: Seeking to get out of his contract with Fantasy Records, John Fogerty gave up the rights to the songs he had written for Creedence Clearwater Revival. When he released "The Old Man Down the Road" in 1985, Saul Zaentz, the head of Fantasy, accused Fogerty of ripping off "Run Through the Jungle" and, yep, plagiarizing himself. In court, Fogerty brought an acoustic guitar to the witness stand, performed parts of both songs and eventually won the case. Fogerty then sued Fantasy, claiming they owed him money for his attorneys fees in case that eventually went to the Supreme Court. He won.



The Song: The Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?"
Stolen From: k.d. lang's "Constant Craving"
What Happened: At the same time they were suing the Verve, the Stones were shocked to learn that the chorus of their song "Anybody Seen My Baby?" basically shared its melody with k.d. lang's 1992 hit. In his book, Life, Keith Richards said his daughter and a friend recognized the similarities when he was playing the Stones track. Rather than go through a lawsuit, the band gave lang and her co-writer Ben Mink credits to the song.


The Song: Coldplay's "Viva la Vida"
Stolen From: Joe Satriani's "If I Could Fly"
What Happened: After hearing Colplay's Grammy-winning hit, Satriani claimed he recognized his own melody immediately and said it "felt like a dagger went right through my heart." The British band responded with a statement, saying, "Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song "Viva La Vida." We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavors." Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) also got involved, claiming that Satriani originally borrowed the melody from his song "Foreigner Suite," though he didn't mind it. Coldplay and Satriani eventually settled their dispute without making the arrangement public. Coincidentally, Satriani used an image of comic-book hero the Silver Surfer on the cover of his Surfing With the Alien album, allegedly without permission from the artist. Go figure.


The Song: Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"
Stolen From: Madonna's "Express Yourself"
What Happened: It's no secret that Lady Gaga owes much of her act to the elder pop icon, but it was a bit surprising that she'd release a single that sounded almost like a Madonna ripoff. Madge called the song "reductive" and later professed her love for Gaga, while also noting that "imitation is the highest form of flattery." The spat is still ongoing, with Madonna recently telling an audience that Gaga declined to perform with her. "It's OK," she said. "I've been rejected before. It builds a little character." Your move, Gaga.



The Song: Usher and will.i.am's "OMG"
Stolen From: A random "Simpsons" song
What Happened: We're not really sure, but Usher's lines "Honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow / Honey got some boobies like wow, oh wow," sound an awful lot like Homer Simpson's "Christmas in December, wow wow wow / Give me tons of presents, now now now."