Posted on 05/27/2022 12:28:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Music lost one of its most promising talents when the Notorious B.I.G died at the age of 24 as the result of a Los Angeles drive-by shooting in 1997.
His friends grieved especially. Sean Combs, who's been known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, had been close with B.I.G. since the very beginning: B.I.G. signed to Combs' label Bad Boy Records when it first launched in 1993. Combs also produced and added vocals to several of the tracks on B.I.G.'s debut album, 1994's Ready to Die.
“You get guilt when you lose a friend,” Combs told People magazine in 2017. “It could’ve been you. You have to deal with that. It’s a heavy thing.”
After the Notorious B.I.G.'s death, Combs chose to pay tribute by releasing a song titled "I'll Be Missing You" on May 27, 1997: "Memories give me the strength I need to proceed / Strength I need to believe / My thoughts big I just can't define / Wish I could turn back the hands of time."
"I'll Be Missing You" was an instant hit, debuting at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
There was one group, however, who was left out of the success: the Police, whose 1983 song "Every Breath You Take," was heavily sampled throughout "I'll Be Missing You." Combs lifted Andy Summers' famous guitar riff as well as the melody of its chorus, which was sung by Smalls' widow, Faith Evans.
Summers wasn't even aware of the sampling until one of his children pointed it out.
“My 10-year-old came in the house and came over," Summers later told UCR. "He goes, ‘Hey Dad, I want you to come listen to my radio in the room. There’s a guy who is completely doing your guitar thing.’ I went in and it was the first time I’d heard Puff Daddy and whatever he called that song. I went, ‘Oh my God.’”
The Police immediately sprang into action. “We went from there and called the manager,” Summers said. “I think we ended up settling out of court and we got some kind of royalty. But I mean, I think he sold 30 million singles with that track or something, and we didn’t get anything out of it.”
More specifically, Summers didn't get anything out of it. Sting was the only credited writer of "Every Breath You Take," and had not permitted its sampling. He was subsequently awarded 100% of the royalties on “I’ll Be Missing You."
Summers was awarded nothing in what he described years later as the “major rip-off of all time."
"He actually sampled my guitar, and that’s what he based his whole track on," Summers said. "Stewart [Copeland]’s not on it. Sting’s not on it. I’d be walking around Tower Records, and the xxxx thing would be playing over and over. It was very bizarre while it lasted."
Andy Summers of the Police Calls Puff Daddy’s ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ a ‘Major Rip-Off’
Poor Summers, he should have gotten a songwriting credit.
Hmmm. The word “talent” isn’t one I’d associate with Rap.
Huh? There are royalties for writers, and performers (and producers as well). Why would only the writer get royalties for an unauthorized “cover”?
The thieves call it sampling. A simple obfuscation to allow them to justify/rationalize a good old fashioned ripoff.
I always thought that the Police’s “Every Breath You Take”’s tune sounded like a rip-off of “More Than I Can Say”, which had been recently done by Leo Sayer, and much earlier by the Crickets.
Accuse Puff of piracy and you’re a racist!! It’s automatic! No other reason but racism. Plain and simple!
“Music lost one of its most promising talents...”
Music? Uh, eff NO!
The RIGHT way to rip off the Police:
Mark Knopfler realized that the melody in his head for “Money for Nothing” (”I want my... I want my... I want my MTV”) was actually the Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” (”Don’t stand so... Don’t stand so... Don’t stand so close to me”) Hesitant to ditch the entire song, he called Sting, looking to reach some sort of arrangement.
The result? That’s Sting, not Mark Knopfler, singing the refrain on Dire Strait’s biggest hit.
Meanwhile, this new British band had their first no. 1 hit in the U.K. with their version, and did okay in the States also. Womack started getting some nice-sized checks in the mail. After that, he didn't mind the fact the Rolling Stones covered his song.
Hate it when a song starts I like and then someone starts rapping.
Back in the old days, Sting would get a higher percentage of touring profits also. But for their 2007 reunion tour, Summers and Copeland insisted on an even third split and got it.
wonder how a big and/or tall person is stuffed in a standard size casket...
The word “music” isn’t one I’d associate with rap, either. It’s just idiotic *NOISE*.
By today's court standards, [See the Marvin Gaye estate lawsuit against Robin Thicke/Pherell] Knopfler would have to give songwriting credit to ZZ Top for Money for Nothing.
Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top said Knopfler called him many times asking how he got his "dirty guitar," sound. Gibbons refused to tell him anything, but Money for Nothing was Knopfler's attempt to recreate it.
Sorry... I YouTubed Sayer because it was intriguing. I just don’t hear it. I mean, they have somewhat similar voices (Sting’s is more saxy, while Sayer’s is more like a horn), and the refrain has a similar spacing between lyrics and musical response, but even that’s just borrowed from your basic blues, and there’s nothing I can find in common between Sayer’s melody and Sting’s. The chord structure... the verse pattern... the rhyme pattern... the stanza structure... the rhythm... the instrumentation... all different.
The closest I can find is the lyrical structure of what for Sting is a refrain and for Sayer is a bridge
Oh don’t you know I need you so
Oh tell me please I got to know
Do you mean to make me cry?
Am I just another guy?
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches
With every step you take
And THAT is relating an 8-8-7-7 stanza with a 4-4-5-5 stanza!
“uh, okay bitch, is you a hobbit”? P Diddy
Actually, Sting’s refrain is 5-5-5-5. I miscounted “belong” as one, and in the first line, “you” is given two notes.
Was Metallica compensated when Kid Rock sampled the guitar riff from Sad but True?
Almost all music is sampled folks. I admit though Diddy does it more egregiously than others.
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