Nguyen: Petty Gets Credit for Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’
Monday, February 02, 2015
The question is, when you heard “Stay” – did it remind you of “Won’t Back Down”? If it did, you are in good company. Petty himself believed that Smith’s song sounded like “Won’t Back Down” – and not just sounded a little bit similar, but was a copy of the 1989 hit. This is not Petty’s first rodeo. He previously compared the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California” to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and the Strokes’ “Last Nite” to “American Girl.”
Petty’s people quietly confronted Smith’s people and they resolved it out of court last October (the public is only hearing about the settlement now). Petty and Jeff Lynne (co-writer of “Won’t Back Down”) are reportedly receiving 12.5% of the writing credit of “Stay.” Translation: Royalties. While Petty and Lynne won’t reap the benefits of the Grammy glory if Smith wins, 12.5% of writing credit will undoubtedly amount to quite a large windfall.
It’s great that they were able to settle it amongst themselves like gentleman. But, if Petty had sued, would he have had a valid claim for copyright infringement against Smith? Copyright infringement is an incredibly complex area of the law, and court decisions are very fact-specific. From a 30,000 foot view, the basic elements of proving copyright infringement are (1) I own a valid copyright of the song and (2) he copied portions of the song that are original.
If there was video footage of Smith singing “Stay” over “Won’t Back Down,” with a diabolical look on his face, it would be case closed. But that never happens. So, you have to prove he copied the work in another way. That way involves looking at (1) whether Smith had access to “Won’t Back Down” and (2) whether the two songs have “probative similarities.” Umm, what?
It has been reported that Smith claimed to NEVER HAVE HEARD “Won’t Back Down.” Likely story. How’s the weather under the mountain where you’re living, Sam? As it turns out, it doesn’t matter if Smith actually ever heard “Won’t Back Down.” It only matters that Smith had a reasonable opportunity to observe Petty’s song at some point. I don’t think anyone could argue – with a straight face – that Smith didn’t have reasonable access to “Won’t Back Down.”
It’s been on every college kid’s power hour playlist since 1990! Now we get to “probative similarities.” As a casual listener of music, perhaps the two songs don’t sound all that similar to you. Not royalties similar. But, the similarity component requires a review of the musical composition of the songs – and it would take an expert to explain that.
Listen to this YouTube comparison, and you will get a taste of how they arguably are similar.
Perhaps parts of “Stay” do copy parts of “Won’t Back Down”. But is it a copy of Petty’s original work? Many musicians would argue that much of Petty’s music contains basic compositions that are intrinsic to music, and that Petty shouldn’t own that which is inherent to music simply because he got there first. I’ll leave that to the experts.
Ultimately, who knows if Petty would have won in court. What is important to think about is how we view ownership of music, and how we differentiate between when an artist should give a nod to a predecessor and when an artist can claim a work as his own.
Do you think Petty should get writing credit for “Stay”?
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