5 Songs Accused of Plagiarism: The Words and the Music

"Borrowing" melodies and lyrics from songs has been going on for decades, if not centuries. Whether permitted or not, music plagiarism has happened so many times that people routinely check everything from an essay to lyrics with a free checker.

When it comes to essays, though, one can simply use some free plagiarism checker online while it's completely different from plagiarism in music. It does always, however, spark interest for a checker to know who stole what! Even though we do not have that free essay checker for music specifically, here are a few of the more famous plagiarism cases:

A Lover's Concerto Plagiarism

It's always good to start with one of the earlier cases of plagiarism. This Toys' song from 1965 sold over two million copies and was critically acclaimed.

It's also one of the subtlest forms of plagiarism that exists. This wonderful song steals its melody from "Minuet in G Major" by none other than the inimitable Johann Sebastian Bach!

This is one that's never going to go through the courts as the song is in public domain, free to use, and the original artist died about two hundred and eighty years ago! Many music students can write an essay on the topic, however, as it offers some basic understanding of how "borrowing" may take place in music.

Bittersweet Symphony Plagiarism

The Verve are probably one of the most famous plagiarists in history. Although this 1997 song was a huge hit and still makes "All-Time Best" songs even today, it is known for an accusation of plagiarism that culminated in a court case.

The Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" was sampled to create the catchy melody of the song, but the nature of plagiarism is quite complicated in this case. It was an orchestral version of the song that was sampled, and permission was obtained from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra.

They did not, however, obtain permission from The Rolling Stones' band manager or the band itself. The accusations of plagiarism culminated in a court battle where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were added to the writing credits. They also were granted full royalties to the song, only giving them up in early 2019 for free!

Down Under Plagiarism

Everyone has heard this song at some point in their lives. It was a massive hit for the Australian band Men at Work and still gets airtime even today! This song skyrocketed to number one in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and of course, Australia.

In 2007, a case for copyright infringement began with a quiz show where it was revealed that part of the flute melody was actually from a children's song entitled "Kookaburra" written in 1932!

After several appeals by Men at Work, the keepers of the Kookaburra were awarded five percent of the royalties for the song.

Dark Horse Plagiarism

This critically acclaimed hit from 2013 by Katy Perry was accused of plagiarism in 2014 by a Christian rapper called Flame! That's right, Flame came forward and said the song was a rip-off of his 2008 song called "Joyful Noise".

Along with the accusation of copyright infringement came claims that the religious message of the original song had been "irreparably tarnished" by the darker imagery of Perry's version, but a corrector later said that the statement was inaccurate.

This resulted in a court battle where a jury found that Perry did indeed commit plagiarism in music and awarded the original artist 2.78 million dollars! The battle with this one isn't over, however, as the case is under appeal.

Stairway to Heaven Plagiarism

Forbidden from being played in music stores across the country, this is probably one of the best-known songs that Led Zeppelin ever made. It's also one that got into a legal dispute over the opening guitar chords of the song.

It was Sprit's "Taurus" that people noticed a distinct similarity to and was released a few years earlier in 1968. It wasn't until just five years ago that the surviving band members filed suit, claiming that they simply lacked the resources to sue until then.

The final decision on whether or not Spirit deserves a share of the 550 million dollars the song has earned hasn't been made yet.

All these cases show that plagiarism in music is a sort of a widespread phenomenon. It also seems that even bands themselves can be sometimes unaware of ideas they've stolen, as this could have come with a pure inspiration or memory. The fact is, however, that one should be careful when it comes to plagiarism, as it may cost a lot of money in this industry.