Tom Petty & Royalties for Sam Smith Song

chrisj1602

Just read that Tom Petty has been given songwriting credit and royalties for Sam Smith's Stay With Me, for similarlies to Won't Back Down. I knew it sounded familiar!

vasselmeyer

not_the_dj

Jeff Lynne should get a few quid as well.

chrisj1602

not_the_dj;495575" said:

Jeff Lynne should get a few quid as well.

Yes, Lynne and Petty have both been given credit.

not_the_dj

That's all right then. Can't have Jeff losing out, I'm he could do with a few extra pennies ;-)

ICBM

That is astonishingly close when you match them up like that. Hard to believe it's even a coincidental 'by ear' lift, it sounds like that was how they came up with the track. The phrasing and structure is a direct match as well as the chords and melody.

I don't get the fuss about Sam Smith, at all. He seemed to go from being the guest vocal on Naughty Boy's La La La (which is quite good, but it's not the vocal that makes it) to being the Next Big Thing.

RocknRollDave

I think it's just coincidence. It's a fairly obvious melody, it's no surprise two people have stumbled upon it by accident, IMO.

It's one thing someone ripping off an idea wholesale, but a song that sounds a little bit the same but has a totally different mood and feel to it...Where's the harm? Were people accidentally buying the Sam Smith song thinking they were getting the Tom Petty song?

ICBM

RocknRollDave said:

It's one thing someone ripping off an idea wholesale, but a song that sounds a little bit the same but has a totally different mood and feel to it...Where's the harm? Were people accidentally buying the Sam Smith song thinking they were getting the Tom Petty song?

I think you're confusing copyright and trademark.

Of course no-one buys a song thinking it's another one (excluding the first time you ever bought a 70s Top Of The Pops album, anyway ), but the point is that if you come up with an original artistic idea, someone else should not then be able to generate royalties from 'borrowing' that and altering it slightly, without paying you at least a proportion.

I agree it's a fairly standard chord progression and melody, but the coincidence of the structure and arrangement including instrumental/backing part melodies is very close too.

For what it's worth I never though the Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Dani California' was a rip-off of Petty's 'Mary Jane's Last Dance' when there was a fuss about that, but this one is a whole different level of matching.

JAYJO

That new Ed sheeran Track sounds like hes took the music from  Lets get it on! (you know  that deep sexy one all the women love) and sang over it imo.
I can hear Youn guns (wham) in that Bruno Mars track also! but i may just be nuts.

RocknRollDave

ICBM said:

RocknRollDave said:

It's one thing someone ripping off an idea wholesale, but a song that sounds a little bit the same but has a totally different mood and feel to it...Where's the harm? Were people accidentally buying the Sam Smith song thinking they were getting the Tom Petty song?

I think you're confusing copyright and trademark.

Of course no-one buys a song thinking it's another one (excluding the first time you ever bought a 70s Top Of The Pops album, anyway ), but the point is that if you come up with an original artistic idea, someone else should not then be able to generate royalties from 'borrowing' that and altering it slightly, without paying you at least a proportion.

I agree, I just don't agree that Smith has borrowed the idea here, I believe he has created an original song, and Tom Petty did too (with their respective writing partners, where applicable) but that it just so happens that the songs sound a bit similar, which is to be expected within the confines of pop/ rock songwriting structure.

Apart from lining the pockets of Tom Petty (and co), I don't see what good it serves going after a perfectly respectable and credible songwriter/ singer just cos a song sounds a little bit similar. Strkes me as mean-spirited and/ or mercenary.

JAYJO

Hes just being Petty

EricTheWeary

I don't know the Sam Smith song at all but on that clip they cut before the bridge section on the Tom Petty song, if it followed that then it would be more obviously a clone. I'm guessing this is of the unintentional borrowing variety.

Col_Decker

Its no ICE ICE Baby. "I made it up walking thru a desert one day"

 

 

richardhomer

I must admit the Sam Smith song had a familiarity about it - but is so stylistically removed from Tom Petty that I hadn't made the association.

I suspect much like the 'My Sweet Lord'/'He's So Fine' lawsuit against George Harrison, it probably is just an unfortunate co-incidence. Harrison could have chosen to plagiarise a significantly better song had he been looking for inspiration.

I don't mind Sam Smith at all - and I love Tom Petty's stuff.

chrisj1602

It sounds like Sam Smith has been pretty fair, apparently said it was a coincidence but accepts the similarities.

ICBM

Or caved in remarkably easily if there really was no steal… probably cheaper to settle out of court than lose in one.

[/cynic]

Listening to that mash-up again, it's really hard to believe they are not related.

robinbowes

Just had an email from Robert Johnson's Attorney - apparently he wants song-writing credits and royalties for every 12-bar blues ever written.

lustycourtier

JAYJO said:

That new Ed sheeran Track sounds like hes took the music from  Lets get it on! (you know  that deep sexy one all the women love) and sang over it imo.
I can hear Youn guns (wham) in that Bruno Mars track also! but i may just be nuts.

The Bruno mars song is complete rip off of 'slamdunk the funk' by 5ive, mixed witht the really wild show theme song!

lustycourtier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVAV_dkaM2Y

hubobulous

The first time I heard the Sam Smith song, I was in the car and said to Mrs Bobulous how it was a complete rip off of Won't Back Down. Glad this has happened.

bingefeller

Did George Michael get any money when Jessie J and co ripped off the melody for Wake Me Up and put it in the chorus of Bang Bang?