[left that other site]

Ah..the eternal Question:

When does Admiration End and Plagiarism Begin?

Sometimes i hear massive chunks of one piece of music (Over 4 bars sometimes)lifted from one piece and plunked down into another. It’s not an issue if it is the same composer (I’ve borrowed from myself too!) But if it’s a whole different person, it’s a very thin line!

[Publius]

In his opera “Fierrabras”, there is a chorus where Schubert stole liberally from Beethoven’s “Fidelio”. Schubert stepped over that line quite a bit at times.

[Drumbo]

What goes around comes around. The Knickerbockers had a Top 20 hit in early 1966 with the Beau Charles song "Lies." Ironically, the song is most famous today for being blatantly derivative of contemporary songs by The Beatles, due to Buddy Randell's lead vocal sounding uncannily similar to John Lennon, as well as the vocal whoops before the guitar solo and later in the song. Buddy was previously of The Rockin' Saints and then The Royal Teens, who had a hit with "Short Shorts" in 1958.

Fast forward to 1996 musical comedy film "That Thing You Do!" written and directed by Tom Hanks. Set in the summer of 1964, the movie tells the story of the quick rise and fall of a one-hit wonder pop band (not unlike The Knickerbockers). The film's title song also resulted in a musical hit written by Howard Shore for the fictitious band The Wonders, but the astute listener will hear many of the same chord changes and harmonies.

One of Robert A. Heinlein's recurring characters, Richard Colin Ames Campbell, in a Science Fiction novel called The Cat Who Walked Through Walls said:

"File off the serial numbers, change the body lines a bit, give it a new paint job, switch it over the state line, and it's yours! - that's the secret of literary success."

Lies
~ The Knickerbockers ~

That Thing You Do
~ The Wonders ~

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