She’s been sued because her latest tune sounds a bit like “Just the two of us”. The litigation seems ghoulish to me. There’s a slight resemblance but it’s also similar to many others including at a stretch, Ralph McTell “Streets of London”. She needs to be careful if the Big Train sketch is anything to go by.
Olivia Dean v Bill Wither’s Publishers
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I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know…
I hate this stuff. Where a hit here’s a writ they say. Tom Petty had it right. Somebody suggested a current hit sounded exactly like one of his songs and he just said “aw that shit happens all the time”. And did nothing.
He didn’t do anything when Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers sounded like Mary Jane’s Last Dance, but he did call up his lawyer when Sam Smith’s Stay With Me sounded like I Won’t Back Down.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sam-smith-explains-why-he-settled-copyright-dispute-with-tom-petty-1.2948473
I’d not heard the Olivia Dean song at all so have just given it a listen. And it kind of reminds me of about six different songs at once, but ‘Just the Two of Us’ isn’t one of them. I had a lot of respect for Bill Withers, and I suspect if he were still with us, he wouldn’t be making a fuss about this.
Bill Withers was often quite tetchy. Understandable when you consider how many times he had to deal with an extraordinarily long day.