As we all know, often artists are guilty of blatantly rewriting one of their songs, be it an another attempt at chart success, writer's block, or maybe it's just due to reasons known only to them (I'm sure there's many other reasons, so forgive my obvious generalisation).
What are some examples that immediately spring to mind for you?
Are you talking about songs that are written that sound VERY much like some previous hit? Or do you mean where they simply re-record a song from a previous album (hit or otherwise)?
Are you talking about songs that are written that sound VERY much like some previous hit? Or do you mean where they simply re-record a song from a previous album (hit or otherwise)?
Well there was that lawsuit John Cafferty was involved in, which doesn't need explaining to the majority of us here. That is the best known example.
I'm sure people will dive in and say AC/DC or Motorhead but I wanted to give it a little more thought. These are a couple names that spring to mind
-I always thought ZZ Top basically rewrote the same album and songs when they were going through the synthesizer phase. By the time they got to the album Recycler, it was a pretty dry well.
-During Rob Zombie's really "hot" period (commercially) as a solo artist, from about 1998-2004, he rewrote the same basic single over and over again with each album over that time period. At least it felt that way to me.
best example I can think of is Fogerty vs Fogerty... where John (of CCR fame) was sued by the record company that owned the rights to the CCR catalog. Usually this wouldn't be an issue as the artist would typically own the rights to their own songs, but when CCR broke up, Fogerty refused to make any more records with that label. In order to get out of his contract, he actually GAVE the record company the publishing rights (and perhaps recording rights). I can't remember if that's the full story, but its part of it.
Anyway, in the mid 80's, he recorded The Old Man Down the Road and the record company sued him claiming it was basically the exact same song as Run Through the Jungle (from CCR) with different words.
Without going and looking up the lawsuit, I can't remember the outcome. I do remember that Fogerty tried to countersue for legal fees but I think that was denied.
best example I can think of is Fogerty vs Fogerty... where John (of CCR fame) was sued by the record company that owned the rights to the CCR catalog. Usually this wouldn't be an issue as the artist would typically own the rights to their own songs, but when CCR broke up, Fogerty refused to make any more records with that label. In order to get out of his contract, he actually GAVE the record company the publishing rights (and perhaps recording rights). I can't remember if that's the full story, but its part of it. The Old Man Down the Road
I meant Fogerty but had Cafferty on the brain. A couple hours ago, I was listening to John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band from the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack. Found the cd over to Goodwill on Sunday.
Sad thing is, I read your reply and for the first 25-30 seconds thought you were simply elaborating on mine. Then rereading my own post and letting it all sink in, I said, "Oh God......."
No point editing my mistake(s) now, though. I'm a big boy!
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heh, sorry man. I thought about it after I typed up all of that and said to myself "Cafferty? I wonder if he meant Fogerty?"
