In 1971, George Harrison became involved in a lengthy lawsuit that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. The suit accused the former Beatle of plagiarizing a song by The Chiffons when making “My Sweet Lord”. While the lawsuit cost George Harrison a lot of money, he still got a song out of it that made fun of the whole situation.
George Harrison lost a copyright lawsuit over his song ‘My Sweet Lord’
“My Sweet Lord” is one of the biggest hits from Harrison’s solo career. The track was released in 1970’s All Things Must Pass and was also released as a single, peaking at No. 1 on the charts in the U.S. and U.K. Since it was so popular, many noticed the song’s similarity to a 1963 song by The Chiffons titled “He’s So Fine”.
In 1971, Bright Tunes, the publisher of “He’s So Fine”, filed a lawsuit against Harrison, accusing him of plagiarism. While Harrison offered the publisher 40% of the song’s royalties, the company was then bought by former Beatles manager Allen Klein, who wanted to get $1.6 million from Harrison. After Harrison lost the suit, he was forced to give Klein $587,000.
In his memoir I, Me, Mine, Harrison said he wasn’t aware of the similarities between the two songs, but would have done more to change it if he did.
I wasn’t consciously aware of the similarity between ‘He’s So Fine’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’ when I wrote the song,” Harrison confessed. “As it was more improvised and not so fixed. Although when my version of the song came out and started to get a lot of airplay, people started talking about it. It was then I thought, ‘Why didn’t I realie?’ It would have been very easy to change a note here or there, and not affect the feeling of the record.”
Harrison wrote ‘This Song’ in response to the lawsuit
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“This Song” is a track from George Harrison’s 1976 album Thirty Three & ⅓. The song is Harrison delivering a not-so-subtle mockery of the court case and music copyright laws. The song begins with a riff similar to The Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”, a similarity he addresses.
There are also subtle jabs featured in the lyrics, like the line “This tune has nothing bright about it,” a clear shot at the publishing company. Harrison had some help from his friends for “This Song”, with Billy Preston on keyboards and Monty Python’s Eric Idle throwing in some interjections. The song was released as a single but failed to chart in the U.K. and peaked at No. 25 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Harrison shot a music video for the song featuring some guest cameos
Attached to the song was a music video featuring George Harrison in a Los Angeles courthouse, satirizing the trial’s events. The video included some of Harrison’s friends as various court characters, including drummer Jim Keltner as the judge and The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood as a “Pepperpot,” a middle-aged housewife character popularized by Monty Python.
Harrison might have lost the court case, but he made light of the situation and turned it into a win.
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