Love's "She Comes In Colors" v. Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger"

Arthur Lee was in jail when this all went down.

In 1999, Madonna and William Orbit wrote and produced "Beautiful Stranger" for the Mike Myer's film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. The song admitedly includes samples from "In Crowd" by The Mamas and The Papas, but the melody and structure of the song were both lifted from Love's "She Comes In Colors" from their 1966 LP De Capo. The similarities are striking, similarities Madonna refutes. Notice the similarity between Madonna's "ba da da da" part in comparison to Love's harpsichord riff (I think it's a harpsichord)...

Many critics spoke out about the similarities, but still today, Madonna denies having ever heard the Love song. You decide...









Download She Comes In Colors at iTunes
Download Beautiful Starnger at iTunes

What a ripoff!

About 10 years or so ago, I used to listen to a radio show that was broadcast late Sunday nights on WFDU out of Fairleigh Dickinson University (these details are somewhat fuzzy, but they're in the ballpark). The DJ of that show used to play a record every couple of weeks that was a clear ripoff of another song, and I believe he called the segment "what a ripoff", hence the name of this blog. An A/B comparison of all that is holy in the music publishing world.


I'll be highlighting some of these song ripoffs, ranging from some lesser known thefts to those that are well documented (Led Zeppelin ripping off EVERYTHING, for example). I have a pretty good list of material to share, but am always looking for new stuff - so please share if you have a good one! A few guidelines:

• A ripoff should be a stolen song, melody line, guitar riff, etc, that is actionable in court. Huey Lewis (I Want A New Drug) v. Ray Parker Jr. (Ghostbusters) is a classic example. And that one had documentation to back it up...dumb thieves...
  
  
• An artist cannot rip itself off. John Fogerty being sued for writing a John Fogerty song that sounds too much like a Creedence Clearwater Revival song written by John Fogerty is not a ripoff. Do not crucify John Fogerty for his lack of songwriting diversity.
  
  
• Sampling a song is not a ripoff. There are some interesting, lesser-known samples out there that I'll share at some point, but we're talking about newly recorded songs lifting a chord structure, melody, etc - and sampling has grown up and gone legit anyway...
  
  
• Parodies are not ripoffs. Satire is far too blatant, and the courts have agreed. Weird Al will not be featured here, sorry.
  
  
• The ripoffs should be fairly obvious. It's been written that Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ripped off the guitar riff from Boston's "More than A Feeling". This is a stretch, and I don't plan on including ripoffs that stretch things.

So that's it. Keep an eye out for new songs here as I have time to write about them.

Dan