Once again I am pleased to turn over the blog to Keith Toop, who back in January and March wrote two great articles about the songwriting of George Harrison. This time, Keith takes a look at a particular legal case of musical plagiarism which he became aware of recently, and asks you to consider if the case is valid.
A few weeks ago I heard the song “The Free Electric Band” by Albert Hammond on V2 Radio. I’ve always enjoyed the song, but it piqued my curiosity to find out who Albert Hammond was and what other music he had done. I was fascinated to find out that he’d written the song “The Air That I Breathe”, which was on his debut album “It Never Rains In Southern California”, released in 1972. It was co-written by Mike Hazelwood. This song was then made big by The Hollies in 1974, as Hammond and Hazelwood were the writers for The Hollies at the time.
Fast forward to a week later, I was watching the Hugh Grant film “Heretic” at the cinema, and part way through, his character puts “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies on his record player, as he uses the song to prove a point about religion.
He stated that Radiohead plagiarised the song and got sued for copywriting issues. You can imagine what I was thinking, as all this I’d found out about the origins of the song just a week before. So when I got home from Chichester Gate I was chomping at the bit to find out what really happened. This is what I found out.
In the film, Hugh Grant's character says that “The Hollies” sued Radiohead, but it was actually Hammond & Hazelwood that sued “Radiohead” for plagiarism, in their song “Creep”, from 1993. Hammond and Hazelwood eventually won their claim. Radiohead claimed that the similarities were unintentional and subconscious, but agreed to give a percentage of the songwriting royalties, and gave the songwriting credit to Hammond and Hazelwood. Later, Radiohead eventually did agree that they had taken it and because in the end they were honest they weren’t sued to the point of Hammond and Hazelwood taking all the credit, it was agreed they would just take a percentage. Legally, It was deemed that the song shared similar chord progression and melody.
The Plot Thickens...
In March 2018, Lana Del Rey was sued by Radiohead for copyright issues over similarities between her song “Get Free” and Radiohead’s song “Creep”. Radiohead were after 100% of the royalties and Lana offered 40%. Some experts in the copyright field have stated that Radiohead had a good case, which implies that it has been lost that Radiohead were sued for copyright infringement for “Creep” in the first place! I understand that the case has now been settled, with Radiohead receiving a writing credit, although the details of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Conclusions...
So while researching this story it was interesting that Plagiarism is more widespread than I thought, with many big names falling foul of it. With millions of songs out there, and a relatively limited set of chord progressions and available melodies it does almost seem inevitable that comparisons will be drawn, particularly between popular acts who are making significant earnings.
Plagiarism itself is defined as taking somebody else’s work and passing it off as your own, so a lot of the time the question will always circle back to whether the act was actually deliberate, or subconscious. Being inspired by other people’s music isn’t wrong, and building upon their legacy or style is a natural progression of many artforms. Where does one song start and another one begin?
I urge you then to play, in sequence, The Hollies “The Air That I Breathe”, Radiohead’s “Creep” Followed by Lana Del Rey’s “Get Free” and see what you think!
Keith Toop
November 2024
As always, I'd like to thank Keith for his contribution here. If you've got something musical to talk about and share, please let me know!
Jon.
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