Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood Sued for Allegedly Stealing Hit Song, 'Remind Me'
10 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood Sued for Allegedly Stealing Hit Song, 'Remind Me'
Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, and songwriters Kelley Lovelace and Chris DuBois will have to show up in court to answer to charges that they stole a song idea to create ‘Remind Me.’
Nashville songwriter Amy Bowen, who performs as Lizza Connor, alledges that Lovelace and DuBois heard her song, also titled ‘Remind Me,’ during a songwriting workshop in 2008. She claims they told her the song would work better as a duet.
Somewhere in 2010, Paisley, Lovelace, and DuBois wrote the ‘Remind Me’ that would become a duet with Carrie Underwood and became a #1 hit.
Most often, cases like this come to nothing but in a federal court in Nashville, Judge Aleta Trauger allowed the suit to go forward. Claims of theft of copyrighted material need to prove that the accused had sufficient access to the material, which is the case here and is not being disputed by the defendants.
What is left to establish then is if the two songs are sufficiently similar. They have vastly different lyrics aside from the use of “remind me,” but nevertheless the judge ruled that “Bowen has plausibly shown that, taken in combination, the lyrics and associated melodies, intonations, and usage could be sufficiently original to constitute protectable material.”
In more detail, the judge explained:
“As Bowen points out, in both recordings, (1) the phrase ‘Remind me’ is often followed by the partner phrase ‘Baby, remind me,’ which essentially echoes the hook; (2) the hooks are repeated in close proximity and with similar intonation – higher the second time than the first; (3) the hooks rise in pitch from ‘re-‘ to ‘-mind’ and descend in pitch from ‘re-‘ to ‘-mind,’; and (4) the syllable ‘re-‘ crosses two tones and the syllable ‘-me’ crosses at least three tones.”
Given that Judge Trauger found there to be enough evidence that the song may have been stolen, the lawsuit will go forward and the defendants will have to convince other judges, and possibly a jury, that it was all original work and that any similarities are pure coincidence.
This will be a very interesting case to follow. The songwriters Little Rebellion Music represents all participate in songwriting workshops, courses, and song critiques. While they have all been told to be careful to whom they give access to worktapes and demo recordings, it is unavoidable that more established songwriters will hear their songs.
To be continued…
Liv Carter
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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