If Sam Smith Gives Tom Petty Songwriter Credit, Who Else Should Follow?

9 years ago Liv Carter 3

As Sam Smith is preparing for several predicted Grammy Awards wins, he already gave some of the credit away in a rather unexpected fashion. He added Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne to the songwriters credits.

When I first heard there was a buzz about plagiarism surrounding his monster-smash ‘Stay with Me,’ and that it involved Tom Petty, I mentally travelled through Petty’s back catalogue to see if I could recall a similar song.

If you had bet me it would be 1989’s ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ you could have won a lot of money.

As it is reported, Petty’s team approached Smith after they noticed similarities between the two songs. Smith’s camp acknowledged them but explained it was unintentional as they didn’t know the first song.

As Smith’s team told Billboard:
“Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of ‘Stay With Me’ listened to ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and acknowledged the similarity. Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement”

Compare and contrast:

Bravo to Sam Smith and his team. If this had gone all the way to trial, I actually dare doubt that the jury would have ruled in favor of Petty and Lynne. But there is something to be said for not choosing to go down that road, and for treating your fellow songwriters with respect. Especially since Smith recently spoke up about the hypocrisy of some pop stars, it is truly great to see him actively choose a different path.

There is precedent for this in country music, as Miranda Lambert added Steve Earle as a co-writer for her breakthrough hit, ‘Kerosene.’ She was quick to agree that there were similarities with Earle’s ‘I Feel Alright,’. At the time, she explained: “I didn’t purposefully plagiarize his song, but unconsciously I copied it almost exactly. I guess I’d listened to it so much that I just kind of had it in there.”

If the ‘Stay with Me’/’I Won’t Back Down’ case counts as showing substantial similarities, then there are plenty of songs which probably need a few extra songwriter credits, and I’d love to hear some similarities between songs that other people have noticed. Feel free to share them in the comments!

But while we’re on the subject of similarities and Tom Petty…

How about it David Lee Murphy and Ross Copperman who wrote the Kenny Chesney hit ‘Pirate Flag,’?

Every time I heard this 2012 single, I invariably started singing Tom Petty’s ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance.’

Compare and contrast:

I mean, seriously…

About
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Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.

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David Lee Murphy, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Ross Copperman, Sam Smith, Steve Earle, Tom Petty

Artists + songwriters

Robert Wright

The Chesney chord progression is in no way the same as the Petty chord progression, not that it would even matter if it were, and chanting a one-note “melody” that’s more spoken word than anything is hardly an enforceable copyright. The feel is very similar, but that’s a matter of rhythm and phrasing. Clearly no copyright infringement there.

The Smith chorus and the Petty verse are, however, IDENTICAL, minus a few notes of the 3rd line. Absolute copyright infringement.

There is a huge difference between a song that reminds you of another song and one that nearly copies another identically. From an educated musical standpoint, the inclusions in the writer credits of the songs referred to in this blog entry have been dead-on.
- littlerebellion
  
  Thanks for your insight!
  
  You know, it’s interesting, I used to think that copyright infringement was basically about sheet music, and whether a minimum of x-many bars or notes were the same, but turns out that ain’t so. The key thing is simply “substantial similarities,” which can really be lots of things and you just need a judge (and possibly a jury) to agree with you. Petty himself has called the case with “Stay with Me” a “musical accident” without malice and that there was never a mention of a lawsuit. And Smith’s camp said they just felt it was only fair. Good stuff.
  
  The Chesney/Petty thing came up in my Berklee class on copyright a few months ago and it was hilarious seeing the reaction of people who didn’t know the Chesney song. Both of the lawyers leading the class said you could definitely make it a case, but it’d be hard (as all these cases are anyway). I actually don’t think this needs to be a legal case, but in the spirit of fairness, as with Smith, I think a hat tip to Petty would be nice.
  
  Copyright is still a very nebulous part of the law. Because of sound recording copyright, almost anything can be pointed out, including similarities in phrasing, production choices, vocal melody, even a similar use of backing vocals. It’s crazy. (Convincing a judge is a totally different matter though!)
  
  The case I have my eye on is the Paisley/Underwood/Bowen one, which was accepted by a judge just based on proof of access and the idea for the song. They saw potential copyright infringement without it being about the sheet music at all. It’ll probably get settled out of court, but it was really interesting to see that the judge found enough grounds for a case.
  
  In conclusion, copyright law is weird and I am so glad I am not an entertainment lawyer!
  - Robert Wright
    
    Me too, even though one thing I possess in spades is the ability to recognize and define the ‘creative intent’ behind songwriting and recording — it’s one reason I don’t write very often (I get an idea in my head that’s worth pursuing, and a few minutes later, the radio in my head plays the song I stole it from, making me scrap the whole idea!).
    
    The Petty verses on “Mary Jane” share much with any swing-lilted rap, including Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”. That the verses are spoken more than sung makes it an impossible case to prosecute, but Petty would need to acknowledge the many songs that came before “Mary Jane” and included spoken verses against a lilted beat for Chesney’s ‘tip of the hat’ to be truly warranted. Meanwhile, we’re talking about an “artist” who refuses to acknowledge ripping his whole schtick off Jimmy Buffet (after nothing else seemed to work), for chrissakes, so I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on that hat to be tipped. :-)

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