Stealing The Show Trivia Quiz

Answer: Surfin' U.S.A.

"Surfin' U.S.A." uses the music from Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" (1958) and inadvertently helped keep Berry in the public eye, as when the Beach Boys released it, he was in prison for transporting a minor across state lines. "Surfin' U.S.A." mentions 16 surf spots in the lyrics, of which two are in Hawaii, (Waimea Bay and Sunset), one is in Australia, (Narrabeen) and the rest are in California.

Answer: Willie Dixon

"Whole Lotta Love" was recorded for the band's 1969 album "Led Zeppelin II" and listed the songwriters as the four members of the band, however similarities were noted right from the start between this track and "You Need Loving" (1966) by Small Faces, which was in turn a very thinly veiled reworking of the Muddy Waters hit "You Need Love" (1962), written by Willie Dixon. Dixon eventually sued Led Zeppelin in 1985 and the band settled out of court and gave Dixon a songwriting credit on all future releases. Strangely, Dixon never sued Small Faces, although as Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant said, "You only get caught if you're successful."

Answer: Himself

While a member of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fogerty wrote "Run Through The Jungle" (1970) but the record label, Fantasy Records acquired the complete publishing rights to the song. After CCR had split up, and Fogerty went solo, he released, in 1984, the track, "The Old Man Down the Road" from his new album. Fantasy thought that this new track was essentially, "Run Through The Jungle" with new lyrics, and sued for copyright infringement.

Although the case was listed as Fantasy, Inc. v. Fogerty, it was in effect, Fogerty v. Fogerty and common sense prevailed when the courts decided that Fogerty did not infringe upon himself.

Answer: Nothing

Absolutely nothing is the answer as the court ruled that a commercial parody can qualify as fair use. When 2 Live Crew wrote the track, they asked for permission to use it but this was declined. They went ahead and included it on their 1989 album "As Clean As They Wanna Be" anyway, resulting in the lawsuit.

As the band had given the songwriting credits right from the start as "a parody of "Oh, Pretty Woman" written by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees", there wasn't even a song writing credit to be awarded.

Answer: Ghostbusters

Lewis felt that the movie's theme song too similar his song "I Want a New Drug" (1983) and the case ended up being settled out of court, although in 2001, Parker sued Lewis for breaching a confidentiality agreement after he spoke about the case in an episode of VH1's "Behind The Music" TV show. Chart wise, "I Want A New Drug" reached number six in the Billboard charts, while "Ghostbusters" hit number one.

Answer: Cat Stevens

Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay, but in 2009, the case was dismissed, with both parties agreeing to potentially settle out of court. Cat Stevens meanwhile said he was considering legal action, but that it "depends on how well Satriani does." As Coldplay drummer and songwriter, Will Champion said, "it's seems to be only the successful songs that are accused of being stolen." Interestingly, after analysing all the tracks involved, music professor Dr. Lawrence Ferrara decided that all three sounded similar to "Se tu m'ami" by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who died in 1736, and whose music therefore was public domain.

Answer: The Air That I Breathe

Radiohead was successfully sued for plagiarism, after it was established that "Creep" uses a chord progression taken from "The Air That I Breathe" (1972) in its verse, and a melody from the song in the bridge following the second chorus.

Answer: Blurred Lines

The track was already attracting plenty of attention as critics claimed it was misogynistic and promoted date rape, so being accused of plagiarism was probably the last thing Thicke or Pharrell wanted, but the jury found that they had plagiarised Gaye's 1977 track "Got To Give It Up." Gaye's estate was awarded $7.4 million in damages for the copyright infringement and although Thicke and Pharrell appealed the verdict in 2016, the court once again sided with Gaye's estate and confirmed that the estate is entitled to 50% of all royalties from the song for eternity.

Answer: Ice Ice Baby

"Ice Ice Baby" (1989) by Vanilla Ice hit the number one spot in 1990, but was first released without crediting the bassline from the 1981 "Under Pressure" duet between Bowie and Queen, as in the words of Vanilla Ice, "two melodies were slightly different because he had added an additional note." The threat of a law suit from Queen and Bowie encouraged him to change his mind and insist his previous statement had been a joke.

He also gave financial recompense to both parties as well as a songwriting credit, but many critics argue this still isn't enough to make up for the loss of credibility suffered by Queen and Bowie.

Answer: Ronnie Mack

Harrison wound up with a damages bill of $587,000 for the "subconscious plagiarism" of Mack's song after he had admitted being aware of The Chiffons' song. The judge in the case ruled that, ""My Sweet Lord" is the very same song as "He's So Fine" with different words, and Harrison had access to "He's So Fine".

This is, under the law, infringement of copyright, and is no less so even though subconsciously accomplished."