Seventies Band Sues Lavigne Over 'Girlfriend'
Avril Lavigne is being sued by two songwriters who claim that her hit "Girlfriend" sounds like a track their American power pop band recorded in the '70s.
Tommy Dunbar, the founder of the Rubinoos, filed the suit in California's Northern Federal District Court in San Francisco on July 2. The suit alleges that "Girlfriend" bears striking similarities to the Rubinoos' song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," co-written by Dunbar and former Rubinoos' road manager James Gangwer, and released by Beserkley Records in 1978.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Lavigne's publishing company Avril Lavigne Publishing and the co-writer of "Girlfriend," producer/remixer Dr. Luke.
Dunbar and Jon Rubin formed the Rubinoos as middle school students in Berkeley, Calif., in 1973. The band is best known for its 1977 remake of the Tommy James and the Shondells' hit, "I Think We're Alone Now" which reached No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Lavigne's Vancouver-based manager, Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, claims the suit "has no basis. There's nothing similar (between the two songs)," he says. "Our musicologist says there is no similarities of melody, choral progression or meter."
I'm solidly on the Rubinoos side on this case, but I also don't hear a lot of similarity between the two songs, other than the chorus (which the Rubinoos may have borrowed from the Stones' "Get Off My Cloud"). What do you musicologists think?
Rubinoos vs. Avril Lavigne (youtube)
2 comments:
True, the "hey! (hey!) you! (you!)" bit, in both songs, is a clear borrowing from the Rolling Stones song...but the "boyfriend/girlfriend" similarity, and the chord sequence of the Lavigne song is almost that of the Rubinoos' song's verse, just in a different order. Kinda iffy - primarily because borrowing and allusion is a huge part of rock'n'roll - and, I suspect, if you dug through the Rubinoos' catalog - or that of any of their contemporaries - you'd find similar borrowings. The difference, I'd imagine, is that those were construed as being "among friends," so to speak - whereas Lavigne is read as being outside of that musical continuity (chart-pop vs. garage-y rock). Not a very good argument, though. If Patti Smith had done "Girlfriend," would the Rubinoos have sued?
If Patti Smith had done "Girlfriend," would the Rubinoos have sued?
Probably not. Because if Patti Smith had done the song, it wouldn't have been a hit, and the main motivation for this lawsuit was probably an out of court settlement.
And Patti Smith credited the original songwriters in "Land" and "Gloria", even though they're essentially her songs, so she would have given credit to the Rubinoos if she'd done "Girlfriend".
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