Top 10 Rip Off Songs That Made the Original Popular Again

Vs. “Carry On” (1982) by Bobby Caldwell

Lil Nas X’s smash hit “Old Town Road” featured a Nine Inch Nails sample approved by Trent Reznor himself. However, he found himself in legal hot water with this track. A California publisher hit Lil Nas X with a $25 million lawsuit in 2018, claiming that his mixtape track “Carry On” appropriated elements of Bobby Caldwell’s song of the same name. Caldwell’s smooth style of modern blue eyed soul was a hit back in the eighties, but it could easily be argued that very few of Lil Nas X’s fans might’ve been aware of the similarities. Regardless, the influences seemed to be more than just cursory for many critics and journalists, and the lawsuit remains unsettled at the time of this writing.

Vs. “Get Ur Freak On” (2001) by Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott

The music business is exactly that: a business. There’s often a number of people behind the scenes that are responsible for writing, producing and otherwise bringing a song to life. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott” successfully negotiated 25 percent of the royalties from Bad Bunny’s “Safaera,” after it was revealed the latter contained an uncleared sample from “Get Ur Freak On.” That said, other songwriters and producers also share in that song’s collective pie, yet “Safaera’s” undeniable success also managed to remind many of us just how good those old Missy Elliott albums were back in the day.

Vs. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” (1962) by Joan Baez

Call this next instance of plagiarism a case of miscommunication. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” was originally written by Anne Bredon, who currently enjoys co-authorship of the Led Zeppelin version from 1969. However, it was Joan Baez’s cover of the song from 1962 that reportedly inspired Zep’s arrangement of the tune. Baez’s live album neglected to credit Bredon, mistakenly labeling “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” as a “traditional” folk song. Zeppelin kept this label, although they added an additional arrangement credit to Jimmy Page. It wasn’t until news finally broke of this controversy that both the Baez cover and Bredon original made their way back into the public spotlight.

Vs. “Misery Business” (2007) by Paramore

Artists being influenced by other artists is nothing new, but the complicated business of publishing sometimes necessitates a fluid roster of writing credits. Fans remarked online about how “Good 4 U” by Olivia Rodrigo possessed certain compositional similarities to “Misery Business” by Paramore. The latter seemed to agree, and successfully sued Rodrigo’s publishing company, Warner Chappell, for 50 percent of the writing credits. Those same fans that first noticed the arguably coincidental kismet between the two tunes are also largely divided today about whether or not those similarities were strong enough to warrant such a hefty share of the profits.

Vs. “No Scrubs” (1999) by TLC


There is a marked difference between the interpolation of music and a direct sample. Ed Sheeran admitted back in 2017 that his team had made moves to clear his interpolation of “No Scrubs” by TLC for his hit “Shape of You.” This means that Sheeran re-recorded the borrowed bit instead of lifting it directly from TLC’s original. Final approval of this interpolation wasn’t cleared prior to the song’s release, however. And the credits were subsequently revised. This helped bring “No Scrubs” back to the cultural zeitgeist, but it also added in multiple songwriters to the already-crowded “Shape of You” pot.

Vs. “Got to Give It Up” (1977) by Marvin Gaye

At what point does musical inspiration deviate into outright theft? The lines are often blurred (see what we did there?) with regards to how much an artist takes their influences. A 2015 verdict resulted in a $5 million settlement in favor of Marvin Gaye’s estate, after it was found that Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” borrowed too closely from Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” The latter’s popularity as a soul legend hasn’t really gone away, even years after his death, yet the lawsuit also lifted “Got to Give It Up”’s popularity alongside better-known Gaye tracks like “Sexual Healing” and “Let’s Get It On.”

Vs. “The Last Time” (1965) by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra

It used to be something of a common practice, whereby certain “cash-in” cover albums of popular artists would be released, featuring top hits of the era. The Andrew Oldham Orchestra’s cover of “The Last Time” by The Rolling Stones” was created by the legendary rock band’s former manager. But it would be another Stones manager named Allen Klein that would result in this otherwise innocuous cover earning a new lease on life. This all came down to Klein’s successful legal poaching of full royalties from The Verve, who neglected to get Klein’s publishing permission for their sample. It took until 2019 for Klein’s son Jody and The Stones to revert financial revenue back to The Verve songwriter, Richard Ashcroft.

Vs. “Good Times” (1979) by Chic

The embryonic era of hip-hop was largely the wild west in terms of sampling, interpolating and accreditation. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards from Chic had already enjoyed chart success with their hit “Good Times,” but it would be their threat of a lawsuit that would perhaps ensure this disco hit’s eternal longevity. This all came down to The Sugarhill Gang’s unlicensed interpolation of Chic’s music in their own hit, “Rapper’s Delight.” Today, the lifting is blatantly obvious, yet we just can’t help but be reminded of Bernard Edwards’ iconic bass playing every (good) time we boogie to The Sugarhill Gang’s beat.

Vs. “Under Pressure” (1981) by Queen & David Bowie

Popularity can be a fickle thing. The classic rock of Queen will probably always be cool, while Vanilla Ice admitted burned hot back in the early nineties with “Ice Ice Baby.” Yet, fans and critics alike noticed immediately how the hit tune heavily adapted John Deacon’s iconic bass playing…albeit with a couple of extra “tings.” Ice even attempted at the time to distance himself from the controversy, claiming how the tunes weren’t the same. Today, however, “Under Pressure” receives unironic love from heritage radio stations, while “Ice Ice Baby” is primarily left to the dustbin of one-hit-wonderdom.

Vs. “Every Breath You Take” (1983) by The Police

Sean Combs was going hard back in 1997. We’re speaking (of course) about how his hit “I’ll Be Missing You” not only interpolates “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, but also lifts a direct sample. It’s Biggie Smalls’ widow Faith Evans who sings the interpolated version of the main melody that’s also sampled for the tune. And apparently, Combs didn’t feel it was necessary to get clearance before sampling the already immensely popular original. Sting may have appeared alongside Combs at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, but this was only after successfully suing for 100 percent of his owed publishing royalties. It should be said, however, that the cross-genre pollination of a classic new wave song and a hip-hop tune did bring a host of new ears to The Police.








There are only so many guitar chords and keys on a piano. Should there be a dividing line between artistic inspiration and outright theft? Who makes that line? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.