My Sweet Lord - Plagiarism Suit

Plagiarism Suit

On 10 February 1971, Bright Tunes filed suit against Harrison and associated organisations (including Harrisongs, Apple Records and BMI) for alleged copyright infringement of the late Ronnie Mack's song "He's So Fine". In I Me Mine, Harrison admits to having thought "Why didn't I realise?" when others started pointing out the similarity between the two songs; by August, country singer Jody Miller had released a cover of "He's So Fine" incorporating Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" slide-guitar riffs, thus "really putting the screws in" from his point of view. On Harrison's behalf, manager Allen Klein entered into negotiations with Bright Tunes to resolve the issue, by offering to buy the publisher's entire catalogue, but no settlement could be reached before the company was forced into receivership.

While the case was on hold, Harrison and former bandmates Lennon and Starr chose to sever ties with Klein at the end of March 1973 − an acrimonious split that led to further lawsuits for the three ex-Beatles. Bright Tunes and Harrison later resumed their negotiations; his final offer of 40 per cent of "My Sweet Lord"'s US composer's and publisher's royalties, along with a stipulation that he retain copyright for his song, was viewed as a "good one" by Bright's legal representation, yet the offer was rejected. It later transpired that Klein had renewed his efforts to purchase the ailing company, now solely for himself, and to that end was supplying Bright Tunes with insider details regarding "My Sweet Lord"'s sales figures and copyright value. In the build-up to the case coming to court, The Chiffons recorded a version of "My Sweet Lord", with the aim of drawing attention to the lawsuit. Solo Beatles author Alan Clayson has described the plagiarism suit as "the most notorious civil action of the decade", the "extremity" of the proceedings provoked by a combination of the "howling success" of Harrison's single and the intervention of "litigation-loving Mr Klein".

Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music finally went to the United States district court on 23 February 1976, to hear evidence on the allegation of plagiarism. Harrison attended the proceedings in New York, with a guitar, and each side called musical experts to supports its argument. As author Dominic Pedler notes, both of the songs have a three-syllable title refrain ("My sweet Lord", "He's so fine") followed by a 5-3-2 descent of the major scale in the tonic key (E major for "My Sweet Lord" and G major for "He's So Fine"); respective tempos are similar: 121 and 145 beats per minute. In the respective B sections ("I really want to see you" and "I dunno how I'm gonna do it"), there is a similar ascent through 5-6-8, but The Chiffons distinctively retain the G tonic for four bars and, on the repeat of the motif, uniquely go to an A-note 9th embellishment over the first syllable of "gonna". Harrison, on the other hand, introduces the more complex harmony of a relative minor (C#m), as well as the fundamental and distinctly original slide-guitar motif. After reconvening in September 1976, the court found that Harrison had "subconsciously" copied the earlier tune, since he admitted to having been aware of the Chiffons recording.

With liability established, the court then recommended an amount for the damages to be paid by Harrison and Apple to Bright Tunes, which Judge Richard Owen totalled at $1,599,987 − amounting to three-quarters of the royalty revenue raised in North America from "My Sweet Lord", as well as a significant proportion of that from the All Things Must Pass album. This figure has been considered over-harsh and unrealistic by some observers, since it both underplayed the unique elements of Harrison's recording − the universal spiritual message of its lyrics, the signature guitar hook, and its production − and ignored the critical acclaim his album received in its own right. Elliot Huntley observes: "People don't usually hear a single and then automatically go and buy an expensive boxed-set triple album on the off-chance." The award factored in the royalty revenue raised from "My Sweet Lord"'s inclusion on the recent Best of George Harrison compilation, though at a more moderate percentage than for the 1970 album.

The ruling set new legal precedents and was a personal blow for Harrison, who admitted he was too "paranoid" to write anything new for some time afterwards. Early reaction in the music industry saw Little Richard claim for breach of copyright in a track recorded by The Beatles in 1964 for the Beatles for Sale album, as well as Ringo Starr credit songwriter Clifford T. Ward as the inspiration for his Ringo's Rotogravure song "Lady Gaye". In the UK, the corresponding damages suit, brought by Peter Maurice Music, was swiftly settled out of court in July 1977.

During the drawn-out damages portion of the US suit, events played into Harrison's hands when Klein's ABKCO Industries finally purchased the copyright to "He's So Fine", and with it all litigation claims, after which Klein proceeded to negotiate sale of the song to Harrison. On 19 February 1981, the court decided that due to Klein's duplicity in the case, Harrison would only have to pay ABKCO $587,000 instead of the $1.6 million award and he would also receive the rights to "He's So Fine" − $587,000 being the amount Klein had paid Bright Tunes for the song in 1978. The court ruled that the former manager's actions had been in breach of the fiduciary duty owed to Harrison, a duty that continued "even after the principal−agent relationship ended". The litigation continued through to the early 1990s, however, as the finer points of the settlement were ironed out; in his 1993 essay on Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs, Joseph Self describes it as "without question, one of the longest running legal battles ever to be litigated in ". Matters would not ultimately be concluded until March 1998.

As a result of this case's "astronomical" legal expenses, to both sides, and no clear winner, subsequent charges of plagiarism in the music industry have resulted in a policy of swift settlement and therefore limited damage to an artist's credibility: The Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?", Oasis' "Shakermaker", "Whatever" and "Step Out", and The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" are all examples of songs whose writing credits were hastily altered to acknowledge composers of a plagiarised work, with the minimum of litigation.

Shortly before the ruling was handed down in September 1976, Harrison wrote and recorded a song inspired by the court case − the upbeat "This Song" − which includes the line "This tune has nothing 'Bright' about it". The 1960s soul hits "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" and "Rescue Me", as well as his own composition "You", are all name-checked in the lyrics, as if to demonstrate the point that, as he later put it, "99% of the popular music that can be heard is reminiscent of something or other."

In a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine, John Lennon expressed his doubts about the notion of "subconscious" plagiarism: "He must have known, you know. He's smarter than that ... He could have changed a couple of bars in that song and nobody could ever have touched him, but he just let it go and paid the price. Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off." Ringo Starr's reaction was more charitable: "There's no doubt that the tune is similar but how many songs have been written with other melodies in mind? George's version is much heavier than The Chiffons − he might have done it with the original in the back of his mind, but he's just very unlucky that someone wanted to make it a test case in court."

Speaking to his friend Derek Taylor in 1979, Harrison said of the episode, weighing up the positive power of mantra against the unfortunate legal outcome: "I don't feel guilty or bad about it, in fact it saved many a heroin addict's life. I know the motive behind writing the song in the first place and its effect far exceeded the legal hassle."