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Music Trivia -> Song Lawsuits -> B
Songs that have resulted in lawsuits, either for lyrics or for borrowing too much of the music.
Entries Beginning with B
"Band Name," Styx
Dennis DeYoung took Tommy Shaw and James Young to court over ownership of the band name Styx when the band split up. Tommy and James won. Dennis could use the name only if it said "Dennis DeYoung and the music of Styx."
Dan Gould
"band name," J. Band
The reunited J. Geils Band with Peter Wolf back as frontman, had scheduled several dates in many cities but were forced to cancel the tour due to a lawsuit by J. Geils himself. After all, how could these guys call themselves the "J. Geils Band" if guitarist Geils himself ain't in it? He's 70 years old and he's been on the road with another band but promoting himself and using his name "J. Geils" alone - no "Band".
Leader Of The Band
"The Band's Legal Woes," Triumph
In a Much More Music interview Rik Emmet recalls that all of the members of Triumph had lawyers involved in settling the hash about who owned the rights to what Triumph songs? The interview ended with Rik commenting that he "wished that Triumph hadn't ended on such a bad note of having to get lawyers involved in settling their differences."
Celeste
"The Band's Name," Nirvana
In 1992, The U.K. Band from the 60's also named Nirvana filed a lawsuit against Kurt Cobain's Nirvana. The case ended with both bands calling themselves Nirvana and both Nirvana bands were to release "Nirvana Sings Nirvana", but it was shelved once Kurt Cobain died.
Paul Warren
"Barbie Girl," Aqua
The lyrics of the song are about Barbie and Ken, the dolls made by Mattel. Both the song and its music video feature Lene Nystrom as Barbie and Rene Dif as Ken. As such, the lyrics drew the ire of Barbie's corporate owners. Mattel stated in their lawsuit that the band depicted Barbie as a sex object, although Judge Alex Kozinski ruled the song was protected as a parody under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
LPG-Unit
"Barbie Girl," Aqua
Mattel Toys LTD sued Aqua and their record label for soiling the Barbie brand's "wholesome" image. The judge threw the case out because the song was protected under free speech.
Celeste
"Best I Ever Had," Drake
In a lawsuit filed June 24th, 2010, Playboy Enterprises sued Drake for copyright infringement by over alligations that his breakout smash "Best I Ever Had" sampled "Fallin' in Love" by Hamilton Joe, Frank & Reynolds, without attribution or permission.
The suit names Drake, as well as Cash Money Records and Universal Music Group, and asserts that Playboy "has suffered, and will continue to suffer irreparable injury" from the alleged infringement. The lawsuit demands that "all infringing works be recalled and destroyed."
As part of its claim, Playboy also alleges that "each defendant either knew, or should have reasonably known, that the sound recording was protected by copyright." Source: Wikipedia.org
The suit names Drake, as well as Cash Money Records and Universal Music Group, and asserts that Playboy "has suffered, and will continue to suffer irreparable injury" from the alleged infringement. The lawsuit demands that "all infringing works be recalled and destroyed."
As part of its claim, Playboy also alleges that "each defendant either knew, or should have reasonably known, that the sound recording was protected by copyright." Source: Wikipedia.org
Isac
"Bittersweet Symphony," The Verve
The string intro was sampled by an orchestrated version of The Rolling Stones "The Last Time". When the song was released, The Rolling Stones Record Company filed a suit against The Verve and told them that they sampled 'too much' of the song. And as a result, the song was credited as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Paul Warren
"Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden
This 1994 grunge hit was a big hit for Soundgarden in 2006 it was ruined by Peter Frampton by March 1996 synth legends The Moog Cookbook covered it
Karl 1332
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams," Green Day
Oasis sued because they claimed that Green Day added new lyrics to their song, "Wonderwall". P.S. I'm surprised this isn't on here already.
JeReMy
"Business Sh*t," Beatles
I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned already. I watched the Beatles Anthology miniseries on ABC-TV (Ay-Beatle-Cee, geddit?). When their manager was found dead in a hotel the Fab 4 took on the management duties on TOP of all the stressful pressures they already had. There were several business enterprises such as Apple Corps Ltd. and their new record label Apple. The Beatles were very naive about business matters and later on they hired Allen Klein to straighten out the mess. When the burnt out superstars split up the business situation was in an extremely horrible shape. Lawsuits between Klein and the Beatles were filed back and forth. It took about 5 years just to get the band legally disbanded. Then the Apple Corps mess and more troubles with the distributor record labels took years to settle. The Fabs repeatedly referred to this legal madness as "that business sh*t".
We Can Work It Out
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