…you didn’t know were sued for plagiarism:

http://www.fuse.tv/2013/07/famous-songs-sued-plagiarism

Arrogant me, figuring I would know most of the songs listed beforehand, yet was completely shocked and surprised by the very first one, Gordon Jenkins’ Crescent City Blues being so thoroughly…uh…swiped by, of all people, Johnny Cash for his Fulsom Prison Blues!

The rest of the list is quite interesting and features many original artists whose songs -at least to my ears- sound very similar to the more famous songs later sued (Avril Levigne’s Girlfriend is so clearly inspired by The Rubinoo’s –who?!– I Want to be Your Boyfriend)…along with a few other examples that -again, to my ears- bear only a passing resemblance to the much more famous song the authors claimed ripped theirs off.

Loved the bit about the suit against John Fogerty, late of Credence Clearwater Revival, being sued for plagiarizing…himself!  Very funny, yet I have to admit I always thought Old Man Down the Road was a CCR song…it certainly did sound alot like Run Through the Jungle.  Then again, and at the risk of repeating myself: both songs were created by the same man!

By list’s end, I knew only three of the songs featured and was surprised and fascinated by the rest, though they clearly missed a few famous songs that had their artists sued for plagiarism.

Most obvious, at least to me, is the exclusion of George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord versus He’s So Fine. Mr. Harrison’s song was the very first I ever heard of when I was a child being sued for plagiarism, and in that case I tended to agree.  It did sound an awful lot like He’s So Fine.

Since it wasn’t on the list above, I’ve embedded a neat (and short) video comparing the two songs: