“If Marvin were alive, today, he’d probably be suing Thick’s Canadian ass off.”
Can’t Marvin’s record company do this?
Sure...or his estate. There’s been other artists sued (Paul Simon by MJ is one) for less.
Yeah, I think it’s obvious that they ripped off Gaye’s song, but that is harder to prove in court. As long as you aren’t straight sampling another recording, you can get away with ripping off the beat, rhythm, instrumentation, even the chord progression and bass line of a song, and it won’t be considered plagiarism. That all comes down to the melody and the lyrics being similar.
So, a million bands can get away with recording “Chuck Berry” style rock songs, with his signature rhythm, bass, chords, and sound, but when the Beach Boys used his melody from “Sweet Little Sixteen” in their “Surfin’ USA”, they had to pay up. This song uses a different melody and lyrics, so they would probably skate in a lawsuit.