Actually that flute riff was plagiarized from the classic Australian song "Kookaburra Sits in the old Gum Tree" and the band had to pay back some royalties on that song as a result. Who would have noticed?
This Sunday (April 22) will be the 30th anniversary of the classic Men At Work album Business As Usual being released in the United States. This is one of my favorite albums of all time and for those not familiar with it, I highly recommend checking it out if you liked the hits. Every track on that album could have been a hit single in my opinion.
Not me. But I have to say that there were many years between hearing "Down Under" in college and "Kookaburra" on Barney & Friends with my kids (or was it "Wee Sing"?).
It was not plagiarized. The song was about Australia. They added a quote from Kookaburra, because it’s indicative of Australia. The courts that made that ruling were amazingly unaware of the laws. There’s a big difference between composition and performance. They mistook a performance for composition.