Funny, this topic was heavily under debate after last night's Grammy awards. The battle pits the reigning female of pop royalty, Madonna against the challenger, Lady Gaga. Gaga's new song, Born This Way appears to be a sound alike to Madonna's Express Yourself. It was only a matter of time before these two would start to spar. I'll let you be the judge:
Truthfully, does this battle really matter anyway?
When thinking off of the top of my head, the two most obvious ones are the ones that went to court: The Chiffons, She's So Fine & George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, and Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters & Huey Lewis' I Want a New Drug. Both lost, so I offer these three. You be the judge.
Imagine by John Lennon vs. Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis (Listen to the Intros!)
Lust for Life by Iggy Pop vs. Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet
American Girl by Tom Petty vs. Last Night by The Strokes.
OK, so no one's ever gonna mistake the Grammy Awards for an actual merit-based music contest. But when the song of the year -- Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" goes beyond the usual derivative dreck and into total rip-off territory, you have to wonder.
There's no question in my mind that the Song of the Year is actually a rip-off of "Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project. See for yourself. Here's the Lady Antebellum song:
And now "Eye in the Sky". Pay close attention to the chorus, which hits at 3:20:
They're practically interchangeable. I'm just glad LA is giving APP some props. Now how about some songwriting credit?
That got me thinking about who else deserves a Grammy based on this sort of criteria. I offer Elastica's fine 1995 song "Waking Up", for which they were sued by the Stranglers for appropriating the unique guitar riff. Take a listen:
How about giving a Grammy to the ultimate rip-off artists -- Milli Vanilli? Oh, nevermind.
