How Do You Plead?
THE MOTOWN SONGS WHICH MOTIVATED ATTORNEYS
“I have been very hurt by being accused of taking anyone’s song or stealing anyone’s song,” Stevie Wonder once told a Los Angeles federal jury. “And the reason that it hurts so much is because I think all songs that I have been given are gifts from the Father.”
Wonder was not Motown’s first songwriter to become ensnared in a copyright infringement lawsuit, but the one involving “I Just Called To Say I Love You” was relatively unusual, in that it went to court. Most such disputes do not, including the legal action taken by Motown’s music publishing unit against Steve Winwood (“Roll With It”) and Frankie Beverly (“Silky Soul”). Both of those suits resulted in confidential settlements, away from the courthouse.
Holland/Dozier/Holland: credit where it’s due
So did an earlier conflict, but on that occasion, Motown was in the wrong. The publisher of Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” objected to “Tomorrow And Always,” the Satintones’ “answer” record produced by Berry Gordy and released by Motown in the spring of 1961. Aldon Music asserted that Goffin and King should not have to share writing credits or royalty income with Robert Bateman and Janie Bradford, who wrote the lyrics to “Tomorrow And Always,” because the song wasn’t theirs to begin with.
In Wonder’s case, he testified in February 1990 as a defendant in the action filed almost five years earlier by Lee Garrett and Lloyd Chiate, alleging that he had plagiarised a song of theirs, and claiming $25 million in damages. The plaintiffs asserted that they wrote “Hello It’s Me, I Just Called To Say” in 1977, and subsequently played it for Wonder. Garrett certainly knew him: they were friends from their shared time at the Michigan School for the Blind, and had penned songs together, including “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” and “It’s A Shame.”
Of the “I Just Called…” dispute, Garrett told me 30 years ago, “As close as people think [the songs] were, they only think they were close because of the title.” He had quit the lawsuit in 1986, with a claim that he was under pressure from Chiate to sue Wonder – a decision which helped the case for the defence. When it went to court, four years later, that Los Angeles jury found in favour of Wonder, or, one might say, the Father.
RUNNING, NOT ROLLING
Jobete Music’s action against Steve Winwood’s transatlantic 1988 smash, “Roll With It,” was more clear-cut, asserting that it borrowed heavily from Jr. Walker & the All Stars’ 1966 hit, “(I’m A) Road Runner,” originally created by Holland/Dozier/Holland. The songs bore “substantial lyrical, harmonic, rhythmic and melodic similarities,” according to the suit, which named Winwood and his co-writer, Will Jennings, among others. It was eventually settled out of court in Jobete’s favour. The lead counsel was Alan Glenn Dowling, who also handled the publisher’s successful case against 1989’s “Silky Soul” by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. The latter j’accuse was that the song infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” and, as noted, the parties came to a confidential settlement.
Jobete also prevailed in at least three other, earlier infringement actions, involving “Please Mr. Postman,” “Ask Any Girl” and “This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You).” In a fourth, a songwriter who asserted that “Baby Love” had plagiarised an existing tune of his took Motown to court – and lost.
Of ‘1-2-3,’ Jobete gets 15 percent
It was “Mashed Potato Time,” Dee Dee Sharp’s 1962 hit for Philadelphia’s Cameo-Parkway Records, which owed its creative debt to “Please Mr. Postman.” The infringing work was authored by Kal Mann, and Bernie Lowe, with a last verse which even made a reference to the Marvelettes’ chart-topper. “In those days,” said Mann’s former songwriting partner, Dave Appell, in an interview some years ago, “you would call up Berry Gordy at Motown and say, ‘Berry, I’ve got a song here called “Mashed Potato Time.” I know you’re going to sue me, so let’s work this thing out now.’ ” That slightly facetious account was correct in one sense: an accommodation was reached after the 45’s release, the names of the “Postman” writers were added to the credits of “Mashed Potato Time,” and the song’s royalty income was shared between Philly and Detroit.
The City of Brotherly Love was the centre of gravity for another such dispute, involving Len Barry’s “1-2-3,” which Jobete claimed as indebted to the Supremes’ “Ask Any Girl” (the flipside of “Baby Love”). Philadelphia-born Barry co-wrote his 1965 hit with John Madara and David White. “The only similarity between the two songs are the first three notes, where the Supremes sang ‘Ask Any Girl’ and Lenny sang ‘1-2-3,’ ” said Madara in an undated interview with Forgotten Hits. “After that, there were no similarities, but their lawsuit said our goal was to copy the Motown sound.”
Adamant in defence of his work, Madara conceded that he, White and Barry had few options. “Motown had the money and the attorneys, and for two years they kept us paying legal bills, depositions, and all kinds of things that took us away from being creative,” he said. Eventually, an agreement was reached, in which Jobete obtained 15 percent of “1-2-3,” and H/D/H shared the credit for the song’s creation. “Did that feel good? No. It sucked,” concluded Madara.
HOLLAND/DOZIER/HOLLAND ON TRIAL
That sentiment was likely shared by Curtis Mayfield. Jobete took a successful legal swipe at “Can’t Satisfy,” the late singer/songwriter’s 1966 R&B hit with the Impressions. “It sounded sufficiently like ‘This Old Heart Of Mine’ that our names were added to the credits for Curtis’s song,” recalled Eddie and Brian Holland in their autobiography, Come and Get These Memories.
‘Baby Love’: no debt to be ‘afraid’ of…
Around the same time, an ex-prizefighter threw an unexpected jab at H/D/H. In July ‘66, Lorenzo Pack accused the trio of copying his song with Harper Evans, “I’m Afraid,” to produce “Baby Love,” and took them to court in Detroit. He was a 1940s heavyweight who quit boxing for music – as Berry Gordy had once done – and had songs recorded by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. In his lawsuit, Pack claimed to have played “I’m Afraid” to staff at the Jobete outpost in New York. “They seemed to like it and they had me play it over and over,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “I never heard from them after that.”
During the subsequent court proceedings, “Baby Love” arranger Hank Cosby dismissed the possibility of infringement (“the structure or form of the songs is not at all the same”), while Lamont Dozier asserted that he had never heard “I’m Afraid” performed in any way, nor had it sung to him. “In no way was the song ‘Baby Love’ based on anyone else’s ideas or suggestions,” he testified. In December 1967, district judge Talbot Smith concurred, and dismissed Pack’s case. (More detail is available in this National Archives essay by Katie Dishman.)
The above cross-section of actions is by no means all that involved the output of Hitsville U.S.A. and/or its writers. The 2013 “Blurred Lines” action by Marvin Gaye’s family against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke over “Got To Give It Up” has generated enough interest and analysis for at least one book, as did music maestro Ed Townsend’s heirs when they sued Ed Sheeran for infringing Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” which Townsend co-wrote and co-produced.
Then there’s the abiding enigma of Marv Johnson’s “You Got What It Takes,” his biggest hit. The song has been credited to Berry Gordy, sister Gwen and Roquel (Billy) Davis – and, on other occasions, just to Gordy and Johnson – but has for decades had to co-exist with claims by singer Bobby Parker that it was originally his composition, and that he cut it for VeeJay Records in 1958, before Johnson.
But perhaps the last word ought to belong to Wonder. He called the years-long legal battle over “I Just Called To Say I Love You” a “deep” experience, and “an amazing pain to go through, feeling that you’ve failed.” But, he concluded, “God got me up and out of that.” Others should be so lucky.
Music notes: you’ll have your own opinions as to which Motown songs owe what to whom, but here’s an opportunity to test them once more. This latest West Grand playlist features the originals of the recordings cited above, each immediately followed by the (allegedly) infringing version. Two tunes are missing, however: “Hello It’s Me, I Just Called To Say” and “I’m Afraid,” neither of which was commercially released. Those who did get to hear them at the time were, it seems, primarily jury members and presiding judges.
Trivia notes: those given to reading the label copy of 45s may recall that the original Cameo pressings of Dee Dee Sharp’s “Mashed Potato Time” featured the names of Jon Sheldon and Harry Land. They were, in fact, Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann, under the identities they used for the other of the two U.S. performing right societies to which they belonged — in this case, BMI. So now you know…