I remember playing some rhythm chords for my band on something i had been working on for years and after I played it the drummer said he liked it when it was ventura highway by america. I was devastated.
Yes...I could describe the feeling before...it was this feeling...and i just couldn't put my finger on it...yes...its that feeling of comfort and being at one, at peace , withstanding difficulty, transcending it...Comfort..that's perfect..
That song was a stealth cult song. Starts out with "My Sweet Lord", then progresses to a chant of "Hari Krishna". Make no mistake, straight out of hell. Even supposed Christians were singing it. Deceptive.
Yes, but it's obviously harder to be inspired that it is to imitate. These days imitation has taken the place of inspiration. You see everybody "inspired" when they aren't inspired to make anything new or innovative. We're currently in a copy cat generation that has to still look back to the 70s 80s and 90s to keep our generations entertainment industry afloat. This is the first generation in history that has fully submerged itself in useless nostalgia as a means to sell products.
@@brianfergus839 There's now denying you don't know what you're talking about. To assume something so ignorant in public is such a "these day" thing to do. Be smarter.
@@quickcar5255 what does that mean.. It's a lawyer's invention. There are twelve notes in s scale..there's only a certain amount of good variation. All songwriting is built on using already known structures and playing off them. Every songwriter steals or whatever you want to call it. Songs are not written in a creative vacuum. There's a style it's written in..chord progressions that are often standards and then the 12 notes to play with n create moods. It's bullshit to say he consciously ripped it off.... For an example..bitter sweet symphony by the Verve is derived from the last time by the rolling stones..I mean the melody not the riff. It's plain as day...so what..the music wheel keeps on turnibg
“It’s something I had to treat positively or negatively so I had to treat it this way.” Positively that says a lot about George. Always philosophical with the goal of trying to make the world more enlightened
@@tcb6875 good job on your english man, even though I think there was A LOT of unconscious plagiarism. I love him I love the Beatles, I love both versions but, to me it's ALMOST the same song with different lyrics.
Throughout their time together Lennon and McCartny and George wrote thousands of songs. In the early years they had no way of recording their efforts and relied on their memories next morning. When Paul wrote Yesterday he was convinced that it was something he had heard before. It's quite conceivable that George felt something similar when he wrote My Sweet Lord only in this case it was something he had probably heard before. Still one of my favourites though.
@@lucasoheyze4597 throughout their lives, including Beatles and solo, and including all the songs they never recorded, I'd estimate well over a thousand at least. Maybe not quite 'thousands', though
@@TB-sv1pl I was only counting the Beatle period. Wikipedia says there were approx 180 published Lennon/McCartney songs...so even if you're being VERY generous and say they wrote as many again that were never recorded, the total is still way less than 500. The real miracle is, of those 180-ish songs, about 170 of them are absolute belters, an unbelievable consistency of quality.
@@lucasoheyze4597 oh there's no way the recorded half of the songs they wrote. They were incredibly prolific writers. If I were to make a low estimate, I'd say they wrote at least 5 songs for each they recorded. BUT we'll never really know how many gems we missed out on!
@@TB-sv1pl I'm not so sure. If you look at any list of *known* unrecorded/released songs (that would include all the songs that have turned up on bootlegs in demo form and all the song titles mentioned in interviews etc over the years etc) it's only maybe 40-50 songs, so if there really is such a vast amount of completely unknown material it's hard to see when they did that and where's the evidence of it (say, handwritten lyrics or whatever)? We know from the historical record there were times when they had little shortages (eg Rubber Soul, where they went back to Wait after they'd left it off the Help! album and John had to write Run For Your Life at the last minute just to fill up the album) and if you look at the session sheets for both Revolver and Pepper, every single song they recorded was released.
I wouldn't say "grew up," given that "He's So Fine" was a hit in '63 (when he was 20) but it was popular in the UK and the Beatles were all keen on American pop/rock and covered quite a few of their favorites during the course of their career. He probably just didn't remember that he remembered it.
I've always thought that a lawsuit based on 3 similar notes is absurd. There's a 3minor, a 6#minor, a 4#minor, 3-7th; very different from the Chiffon's. In bluegrass, if you took everybody to court who used the same 3 chords, we'd all be in jail.
Quotable quote: "When My Sweet Lord was released, Lennon wondered why his former Beatle bandmate had “copied” He’s So Fine. “He’s smarter than that. Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off,” he said later." Well John - i seem to recall Mr McCartney warning you about Come Together (Chuck Berry's Can't Catch Me???). Also - the Beatles toured with the Chiffons - they opened for the Beatles at the Washington Coliseum. Since it was one of their biggest hits, it is entirely likely that the Chiffons performed He's So Fine on that tour. I honestly don't believe George consciously plagarised - but He's So Fine would have definitely been in his lexicon of modern music. The giveaway is the Doo-Lang-doo-lang-doo-lang bit being so close the Hare Krisna, krisna krisna, hallelujah, rama rama bit. Through it all, when i think of the Beatles sound I always think of "If I Needed Someone" - a George song. The Beatles would not have been the Beatles without George and his attention to the latest gear, particularly that Rickenbacker 12 string. So whatever bright Music might make of it - he's still one of the great rock era composers and always one of my music heroes. :-)
Loved John. But his plagiarism of Stewball for Happy Xmas was a lot more evident than the presumed plagiarism of He's so fine. Sometimes, he'd better kept his mouth closed. Anyway, if it was plagiarism, it still rests hard to explain how He's so fine had passed unobserved, while My sweet lord became a world wide hit, that stands and still lives through decades and generations. This means it was meant and felt by audience as a completely new song, on a different, higher musical level. A total masterpiece, i'd say
@@haregeorgeson4511 youd say and youd be wrong. My sweet Lord is drivelly nonsense and anyone under the age of fifty would tell you that. It's total rubbish. George wrote some classic stuff like Something, but MSL is crap.
@@aus200200 I wasn't at all surprised when I found he used Cynthia as a punching bag. She must have smiled when she heard him singing Happy Xmas war is over. He really was an absolute horror of a person
I like both songs, George's better, as I've been listening to that one all my life and it's always resonated. The more I listened the more similar they sounded. They are VERY similar, but hey! Classical musicians would compose variations on bits and pieces of other composer's work all the time. It's nothing new. It's all creative.
There are only so many chords out there. This was a bullshit lawsuit brought about by Bright Tunes Music Corporation, not the actual composer of "He's so Fine" or any of the singers in "The Chiffons." The composer, Ronald Mack, died in 1963 at age 23 of Hodgkin's Lymphoma so he unfortunately had no say. They say that much of the $587k in damages went to Mack's family, but it's undisclosed so nobody knows & probably the corporation and lawyers got a lot of that. I honestly believe that the only person who would really be entitled to receive anything would be Ronald Mack himself, but the poor guy died. If he had been alive, he probably also would have said it was a bullshit lawsuit.
Yet in a bizarre twist, in February of 1981 Harrison paid $587,000 to Allen Klein for the purchase of Bright Tunes (which, of course, included the very song that "My Sweet Lord" had nicked)... that amount being the same as what Klein had paid to purchase Bright Tunes for _himself_ three years before! So ironically even "He's So Fine" wound up in the Harrisongs catalog!
Honestly I find it an easy song to write. In the sense that it's so instinctive, that the chords ask for the progression and the melody. Anyone could have written something very similar. But knowing as much about the Beatles as we do, we should also know that George is a true songwriter and would never aim for plagiarism. He wouldn't need to either. I find it terrible that this happened.
Is true, is a easy witch anyone can do it, and George did it. There are people that say the same with “here comes the sun”; and you should see that he (George) had the imagination and compossed it. It could be, but if he did it he is the “man who wrote it and (by his imagination) compossed it).
Very easy to write a song that's already written, isn't it? I wonder how many other songs you've found as easy to write which _didn't_ already exist for you to judge them as easy to write.
If anyone has ever spent 5 minutes writing a song, you know how easy it is to unconsciously plagiarize another song. There's TH-cam musicians who make videos all the time on the times they accidentally ripped off other music. I think it gets blown out of proportion because in this case, its a Beatle that wrote a similar song.
@@henryalva8819 interesting 🤔. Is there a video of John actually saying this "George knew exactly what he was doing" in regards to the supposed plagiarism of this song?
Not that it is an ideal comparison, but when George sang the three notes all I heard was the opening "look at me " in "Misty". And, as a side note as a lawyer, perhaps the fact that George's attorney confuses a "song" with a MELODY speaks volumes about why the matter was not settled out of Court.
To me, it's actually the differences, not the similarities, that make "My Sweet Lord" the better song: the guitar solo intro, the better swing to the rhythm, the better melody over the second half of the chord sequence (after the "three notes" were done), and the use of the diminished chord toward the end of the sequence.
I think in this day and age, it's pretty pointless to compare two different songs based solely off their melodies and chords. Because if you listen to "He's So Fine" and "My Sweet Lord", they have completely different production styles, overall instrumentation, and genres
I totally agree. These are two different songs in so many ways, and I really hadn't noticed their similarities. Now, Texas' "Black Eyed Boy," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps.." are outrageously matched! Cheeky to say the least..! And I don't think the argument that everyone borrows from others supports or defends this blatant musical steal!
The Bronx's Chiffons were assuredly NOT Motown. Good grief, do you think every black pop group back then was signed to Motown?? As far as different styles, MANY artists cover other artists' hits and style them differently, e.g. Lennon & McCartney's "In My Life" covered by Judy Collins. They don't try to pass them off as their own work, though. Learn the difference between "The Girl Groups" (who came in different colors) and Motown, why doncha?
I agree, Geoff. Your point was that the tune/ melody was the same, but the style was different. However, the Chiffons were classified in the "Brill Building" (NY) pop and also "Girl Groups" in the overall Pop / Rock umbrella. Most of the general public isn't familiar with the term Brill Building - a place in NY years ago produced popular music. HotVodoo - in which sub-category, under the overall "British Invasion" classification would you place George Harrison - but in his post- Beatles phase?
When I first heard "My Sweet Lord," I thought to myself, "My goodness, that's 'He's so Fine.'" What I can't figure is that not only didn't George ever consider that, but none of the people around him did either. It's not like "He's so Fine" was some obscure song, it was a huge hit, a number 1 song, only seven years before "My Sweet Lord." Maybe George was busy in 1963 so he wasn't aware that it was being played all over the radio, but I can't believe that there wasn't somebody among his advisors that said, "Hey, wait a minute here..." Was he surrounding himself with Yes men? I tend to think if he had presented this to the other Beatles, one of them would have pointed out that it was "He's so Fine." I'm not a musicologist, but there's a difference between songs that sound kind of similar, which may happen quite a bit, and two songs being as close as these two songs are.
I like George’s “version” better, and of course there are similarities but that’s bound to happen from time to time in music. There are only so many note combinations and melodies, that it’s gonna happen.
100% some fan of George wanted to see him play live so they requested for him to appear with his guitar. “So Mr Harrison, how would play here comes the sun for example?” Nice!
I love Harrison's tunes including My Sweet Lord and as we all know there are only so many cords.... I am so sorry this happened - obviously George was chosen to sue because it was a great song and made a lot of money for the money grubbers. And I don't believe that Harrison consciously plagiarized "He's So Fine" but I wasn't the judge.
@@johnsarab4500 Haha. Not exactly. Even if plagiarism is unintentional it’s still considered plagiarism. In a similar way, imagine if you had truly never seen the Apple computer logo, but you independently decide you want to use the same one. Could you use it? Of course not. In terms of criminal law, one could be convicted for gross negligence for killing someone while driving drunk for example - involuntary manslaughter.
I'm not a songwriter but it seems that you have to be careful when a melody pops into your head as it may actually be a memory as opposed to something you thought up.
This is true. I wrote a song years ago which had the same distinctive chord intro to a song by the Stereophonics (She Takes Her Clothes Off). A friend pointed it out but I had never heard the song - at least, I wasn't consciously aware of it. I was just messing about on the guitar and the sequence sounded nice. True enough, the intro was the same (except mine was slowed down).
One of the benefits of being in the Beatles is that you had two musicologists in the band- John and Paul. They often call out each other's plagiarism and altered a song to the point they could usually get away with. it.
I suppose this sort of thing happens throughout music history. I believe George unwittingly used the tune from "He's So Fine" but didn't really think about it. As a result, the outcome was that he had to share royalties from that song. The same sort of thing happened to Rod Stewart with "Forever Young," which had been written and recorded by Bob Dylan many years before. Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain" uses some lyrics and the tune from an old Scottish ballad. Going back even further, the tune from "God Save the Queen (or King)" is identical to "America" (My Country 'Tis of Thee).
Bob Dylan lifted a lot of public domain stuff - obscure folk songs and the like. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" was lifted from an old folk song called "Who's Gonna Count your chickens When I'm Gone?"
Every reggae song starts with a splash on the drums and the same rhythm. They should have ruled that the record that sold the most copies was the definitive. I'm joking. But I hope I've made the point.
it's simply part of the creative process to take bits and pieces from a variety of different media you like and put them together to make something of your own. it's impossible to create a song that's never been heard before without taking concepts from others and giving it your own flair.
Yeah, who comes with a tune and thinks 'what inspired that'. I dreamt killer songs in my sleep (can't write or play), but woke with out a trace. When one creates one never thinks what lead me to that! WHERE WOULD WE BE IF INFLUENCES HELD US BACK - PRE-FIRE AND STONE TOOLS. (Bro, I invented the arrow! Give me 10 pelts or come at me!)
Once I woke up and I had this melody in my head…I went to the piano, played it, and wrote it down…..I called it Tomorrow…. And then I realized it had the same notes and changes as Yesterday.
Big difference. Those two songs are sampled on All Summer Long. Not only did he pay for the rights to use those songs, the original songwriters are credited on the album.
It started as George showing Billy Preston how easy it was to built a song based on another one, and he created My Sweet Lord based off He's So Fine on the spot. The problem was he decided or was encouraged to officially release it.
Thank you very much, sir! I needed it because of a presentation I gave to my students in which I talked about plagiarism. So, obviously I need to give credit!
I think they were saying that My Sweet Lord 'sounded' like He's So Fine. Harrison may have subconsiously wrote his song with the melody from the other song. Did he ever say so. I suppose he wouldn't, but was there any suggestion of it. The songs sound so different, it's a wonder there was a lawsuit.
Chord = accord of notes in a scale. Improvising chords on a melody. Rhythm and timing ..........are the words interchangeable? I think George got the raw end of the deal.
Ronnie Mack wrote He's So Fine for The Chiffons. The Chiffons re-recorded "He's So Fine" with members of the Tokens and with Carole King on piano, and it was released by Laurie Records in late 1962, reaching number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B chart in March 1963. Sadly songwriter Ronnie Mack died of Hodgkins Lymphoma in November 1963. He was only 23. Bright Tunes Music, the company which owned the rights to "He's So Fine", won a notable lawsuit against George Harrison, starting in 1971, for subconscious plagiarism of Mack's tune in writing "My Sweet Lord". Much of the eventual settlement of $587,000 damages was paid to Mack's surviving family.
it is weird that james taylor was recording something in the way she moves for apple records at abbey road when george "came up" with the idea for something ...
After reading a lot of the other comments, as a songwriter, I really do not believe George would have intentionally ripped off someone else's song. When Paul woke up with the tune of Yesterday, he ran that past a lot of friends to see if it was original or someone else's tune. His father had so many tunes he would play. As it turned out, Yesterday is like a tune his father used to play. The Beatles in their early days listened to classical music to get a line here or there that sounded unique. They'd change it up a bit, add to it, and come up with a song. John made the comment about how he and everyone else that wrote songs in that era would "borrow" from one another. If George was really fond of the melody in He's So Fine, he could have changed up the melody enough to not be sued for copyright infringement. There are countless songs with the same chord progression and vibe. A gifted songwriter can take a given progression & vibe as a basis, and then go off in a different direction with the melody. George was definitely gifted. He did not have to intentionally use the same melody thinking no one would notice.
As a songwriter for many decades. it is always a danger that the melody coming out of you is something you are subconsciously remembering from somewhere else. It doesn't have to be intentional. Eric Clapton said he accidentally stole part of "Let it Grow" from "Stairway to heaven." It happens to every songwriter. I often have to ask my wife, 'Is this mine or did I steal it?" I don't think George did it on purpose but he lifted that melody from 'he's So Fine."
I read a book that had the line "And then they left" I'm gonna sue that book. I wrote an essay in 3rd grade with that line in 40 years ago. Robbing so-and-so's
It's actually very common to unintentionally write a song or.melody u heard from something else, without realizing that the origins were not your conscience but actually your.memory. It happens all the time for creatives, I accidentally wrote a mcfly melody recently from when I listened to them when I was 7
You don’t get sued for chord progressions. Melody lines however , belong to whoever copyrights them first. My Sweet Lord is obviously based on the melody line of He’s So Fine. Every one who hears the two songs knows it. George knows it too.
George was found guilty of plagiarism and had to pay approximately a million dollars. However, he ultimately bought the rights to the song 'He's So Fine' to avoid any future accusations of plagiarism, once and for all.
I heard a sax instrumental on an LA jazz station one day and I thought "that's My Sweet Lord", then I thought "no, that's He's so Fine" They sounded identical and I never knew which song they were covering...I guess both of them because they are so alike PS I love both versions
I wonder how he'd feel about Texas' "Black Eyed Boy." I can't hear that without thinking of the words of a certain other famous record by George! Yes, there are many accidental appropriations of other records, but really, how could Texas audaciously use that particular musical descent without hearing its particularly obvious antecedent?
not only are the songs in the same key,..but they both go almost the exact same way and the bridge refrains are real similar but George could have plead "paying homage" or "parody" which might have saved him lots of $$$ in the end,.
As a songwriter myself, countless times you have a melody in your head, and subconsciously you don’t realize it’s a song from the past.
I remember playing some rhythm chords for my band on something i had been working on for years and after I played it the drummer said he liked it when it was ventura highway by america. I was devastated.
@@WonderfulWino lol
“He’s So Fine” was a MONSTER hit. He must’ve been drug-addled if he didn’t recognize it.
Paul subconsciously snagged "get back" from the Harrison song Sour Milk Sea
Maybe I should try subconsciously writing the song American Pie
My Sweet Lord will go down in history as a song that brought peace and comfort to many people.
Amen. To the God-believers and the non-believers, the song brings a warmth of comfort to anyone who listens to it with ears that work.
Yes...I could describe the feeling before...it was this feeling...and i just couldn't put my finger on it...yes...its that feeling of comfort and being at one, at peace , withstanding difficulty, transcending it...Comfort..that's perfect..
That song was a stealth cult song. Starts out with "My Sweet Lord", then progresses to a chant of "Hari Krishna". Make no mistake, straight out of hell. Even supposed Christians were singing it. Deceptive.
@@gangsterdave2000 can't even imagine being this ignorant
@@aden060 The truth hit a nerve? Just listen to it. Enough said.
Every song inspires another song. That's how music is made.
I've made a lot of songs and then realised I haven't.
@Not In The Box I love George but there’s no denying he did indeed rip off that song
Yes, but it's obviously harder to be inspired that it is to imitate. These days imitation has taken the place of inspiration. You see everybody "inspired" when they aren't inspired to make anything new or innovative. We're currently in a copy cat generation that has to still look back to the 70s 80s and 90s to keep our generations entertainment industry afloat. This is the first generation in history that has fully submerged itself in useless nostalgia as a means to sell products.
@@brianfergus839 There's now denying you don't know what you're talking about. To assume something so ignorant in public is such a "these day" thing to do. Be smarter.
@@whynot7191 aww you’re cute when you’re triggered 😤 sorry you can’t handle the truth. Keep on believin’ 👍
I can't imagine him consciously ripping off a song.
he ripped it off.
You must have a very limited imagination. How do you live with yourself?
@@quickcar5255 of course he did. It's blatant
stole it with complete knowledge
@@quickcar5255 what does that mean..
It's a lawyer's invention.
There are twelve notes in s scale..there's only a certain amount of good variation.
All songwriting is built on using already known structures and playing off them.
Every songwriter steals or whatever you want to call it.
Songs are not written in a creative vacuum.
There's a style it's written in..chord progressions that are often standards and then the 12 notes to play with n create moods.
It's bullshit to say he consciously ripped it off....
For an example..bitter sweet symphony by the Verve is derived from the last time by the rolling stones..I mean the melody not the riff. It's plain as day...so what..the music wheel keeps on turnibg
My sweet lord, doolang doolang doolang!
Noo this made me laugh in the nicest way
When Jesus walks.....
@@hankhardigan1104 When Jesus wash
@@tonymalena9548 Lyrics were never my strong point =)
Ridículoos...both songs didn't share the same CHORDS...totally bogus
“It’s something I had to treat positively or negatively so I had to treat it this way.” Positively that says a lot about George. Always philosophical with the goal of trying to make the world more enlightened
By "this way" I believe he was referring to the recording of the song and video for "This Song" in 1976.
George was an honest man. He would have credited this song to the original composers with new words by him, if this would have been the case.
If this HAD BEEN the case.
@@1godonlyone119 Thank you! My English lessons ended in 1979.
@@tcb6875 That is obvious.
@@1godonlyone119 Why don't you answer in German? Maybe I could help you?
@@tcb6875 good job on your english man, even though I think there was A LOT of unconscious plagiarism.
I love him I love the Beatles, I love both versions but, to me it's ALMOST the same song with different lyrics.
Throughout their time together Lennon and McCartny and George wrote thousands of songs. In the early years they had no way of recording their efforts and relied on their memories next morning. When Paul wrote Yesterday he was convinced that it was something he had heard before. It's quite conceivable that George felt something similar when he wrote My Sweet Lord only in this case it was something he had probably heard before.
Still one of my favourites though.
They didn't write "thousands" of songs.
@@lucasoheyze4597 throughout their lives, including Beatles and solo, and including all the songs they never recorded, I'd estimate well over a thousand at least. Maybe not quite 'thousands', though
@@TB-sv1pl I was only counting the Beatle period. Wikipedia says there were approx 180 published Lennon/McCartney songs...so even if you're being VERY generous and say they wrote as many again that were never recorded, the total is still way less than 500.
The real miracle is, of those 180-ish songs, about 170 of them are absolute belters, an unbelievable consistency of quality.
@@lucasoheyze4597 oh there's no way the recorded half of the songs they wrote. They were incredibly prolific writers. If I were to make a low estimate, I'd say they wrote at least 5 songs for each they recorded. BUT we'll never really know how many gems we missed out on!
@@TB-sv1pl I'm not so sure. If you look at any list of *known* unrecorded/released songs (that would include all the songs that have turned up on bootlegs in demo form and all the song titles mentioned in interviews etc over the years etc) it's only maybe 40-50 songs, so if there really is such a vast amount of completely unknown material it's hard to see when they did that and where's the evidence of it (say, handwritten lyrics or whatever)? We know from the historical record there were times when they had little shortages (eg Rubber Soul, where they went back to Wait after they'd left it off the Help! album and John had to write Run For Your Life at the last minute just to fill up the album) and if you look at the session sheets for both Revolver and Pepper, every single song they recorded was released.
I don't think George intentionally plagarised 'He's so Fine' but the song melody, chords, structure are really too close.
I don't think it was his intention either, but it was subconscious, since it was one of the songs he grew up listening to.
I wouldn't say "grew up," given that "He's So Fine" was a hit in '63 (when he was 20) but it was popular in the UK and the Beatles were all keen on American pop/rock and covered quite a few of their favorites during the course of their career. He probably just didn't remember that he remembered it.
HotVoodooWitch
Are you saying that you are not still "growing up" at 20 years old? Even if George made it, he was still a kid in my eyes.
The Chiffons toured the USA with the Beatles in '64. That is probably where the song embedded itself in George's mind.
George himself said he didn't know about the song until people started talking about it in the events leading to the lawsuit.
I still have a crush on him.
Gorgeous boy❤️
Georgeous boy
Im a guy and still really love him
me too
@Animesucks cum hey so what if I were gay...there's nothing wrong with the gay people...they are people...just like you & I
I've always thought that a lawsuit based on 3 similar notes is absurd. There's a 3minor, a 6#minor, a 4#minor, 3-7th; very different from the Chiffon's. In bluegrass, if you took everybody to court who used the same 3 chords, we'd all be in jail.
If it wasn't for the greedy, vindictive Allen Klein, it probably would have never been an issue.
I believe Axis of Awesome made a very similar point, but with a certain four chord progression.
Nah. The melody clearly similar.
"This Song" on his 33 1/3 album fantastically covers the trial.
Yes it’s brilliant!
My Sweet Lord is a soaring, ethereal, comforting work of majesty. 'He's So Fine' is an OK, run of the mill pop song.
That you can’t be kind about his without dumping on theirs kind of goes against his whole thing, Terry.
Quotable quote: "When My Sweet Lord was released, Lennon wondered why his former Beatle bandmate had “copied” He’s So Fine. “He’s smarter than that. Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off,” he said later."
Well John - i seem to recall Mr McCartney warning you about Come Together (Chuck Berry's Can't Catch Me???).
Also - the Beatles toured with the Chiffons - they opened for the Beatles at the Washington Coliseum. Since it was one of their biggest hits, it is entirely likely that the Chiffons performed He's So Fine on that tour.
I honestly don't believe George consciously plagarised - but He's So Fine would have definitely been in his lexicon of modern music. The giveaway is the Doo-Lang-doo-lang-doo-lang bit being so close the Hare Krisna, krisna krisna, hallelujah, rama rama bit.
Through it all, when i think of the Beatles sound I always think of "If I Needed Someone" - a George song. The Beatles would not have been the Beatles without George and his attention to the latest gear, particularly that Rickenbacker 12 string. So whatever bright Music might make of it - he's still one of the great rock era composers and always one of my music heroes. :-)
Loved John. But his plagiarism of Stewball for Happy Xmas was a lot more evident than the presumed plagiarism of He's so fine. Sometimes, he'd better kept his mouth closed. Anyway, if it was plagiarism, it still rests hard to explain how He's so fine had passed unobserved, while My sweet lord became a world wide hit, that stands and still lives through decades and generations. This means it was meant and felt by audience as a completely new song, on a different, higher musical level. A total masterpiece, i'd say
@@haregeorgeson4511 The comment was typical cynical Lennon, I mean is anyone really surprised?
@@haregeorgeson4511 youd say and youd be wrong. My sweet Lord is drivelly nonsense and anyone under the age of fifty would tell you that. It's total rubbish. George wrote some classic stuff like Something, but MSL is crap.
@@aus200200 I wasn't at all surprised when I found he used Cynthia as a punching bag. She must have smiled when she heard him singing Happy Xmas war is over. He really was an absolute horror of a person
Come together and chuck berry's dud have no resemblance other than 1 line.
You can use TH-cam to listen to "My Sweet Lord" and "He's So Fine" side-by side. Do it.
@Fernando Mattos Gameleira why not?
I like both songs, George's better, as I've been listening to that one all my life and it's always resonated. The more I listened the more similar they sounded. They are VERY similar, but hey! Classical musicians would compose variations on bits and pieces of other composer's work all the time. It's nothing new. It's all creative.
God bless 🙏
Bullshit
@@sophiehanssel2017 which god?
No problems with interpretations/covers, IF you ask for permission from the owner of hte rights and pay the due fees.
Yeah, it was a shit ruling.
There are only so many chords out there. This was a bullshit lawsuit brought about by Bright Tunes Music Corporation, not the actual composer of "He's so Fine" or any of the singers in "The Chiffons." The composer, Ronald Mack, died in 1963 at age 23 of Hodgkin's Lymphoma so he unfortunately had no say. They say that much of the $587k in damages went to Mack's family, but it's undisclosed so nobody knows & probably the corporation and lawyers got a lot of that. I honestly believe that the only person who would really be entitled to receive anything would be Ronald Mack himself, but the poor guy died. If he had been alive, he probably also would have said it was a bullshit lawsuit.
Still going on today. Led Zepplin stairway to heaven. They won.
Yet in a bizarre twist, in February of 1981 Harrison paid $587,000 to Allen Klein for the purchase of Bright Tunes (which, of course, included the very song that "My Sweet Lord" had nicked)... that amount being the same as what Klein had paid to purchase Bright Tunes for _himself_ three years before! So ironically even "He's So Fine" wound up in the Harrisongs catalog!
ClassicTVMan1981X .. Yes indeed, and hopefully in Hell where Allen Klein is, Satan has My Sweet Lord on blast repetitively for all of eternity
But when Oasis do it they get tortured lol
Honestly I find it an easy song to write. In the sense that it's so instinctive, that the chords ask for the progression and the melody. Anyone could have written something very similar. But knowing as much about the Beatles as we do, we should also know that George is a true songwriter and would never aim for plagiarism. He wouldn't need to either. I find it terrible that this happened.
Is true, is a easy witch anyone can do it, and George did it. There are people that say the same with “here comes the sun”; and you should see that he (George) had the imagination and compossed it. It could be, but if he did it he is the “man who wrote it and (by his imagination) compossed it).
Very easy to write a song that's already written, isn't it? I wonder how many other songs you've found as easy to write which _didn't_ already exist for you to judge them as easy to write.
@@DaveDexterMusic awwww, is songwriting too hard for somebody?😢
George is such a great talker. If that makes sense, I Just really enjoy him in conversation.
If anyone has ever spent 5 minutes writing a song, you know how easy it is to unconsciously plagiarize another song.
There's TH-cam musicians who make videos all the time on the times they accidentally ripped off other music.
I think it gets blown out of proportion because in this case, its a Beatle that wrote a similar song.
Um, ripping off is an intentional act!!!!!!!!!!! You don't subconsciously rip off your neighbor's rare car.
John sarab songs and cars are vastly different
@@henryalva8819 interesting 🤔. Is there a video of John actually saying this "George knew exactly what he was doing" in regards to the supposed plagiarism of this song?
@@henryalva8819 thanks...good enough.
There is a 3-note-sequence in common. I don't think this constitutes plagarism.
Not that it is an ideal comparison, but when George sang the three notes all I heard was the opening "look at me " in "Misty".
And, as a side note as a lawyer, perhaps the fact that George's attorney confuses a "song" with a MELODY speaks volumes about why the matter was not settled out of Court.
He was my favorite Beatle.
ok thanks
He STILL IS my favorite Beatle!
He is my favorite Beatle...
And the handsomest by far, imo. 🥰
To me, it's actually the differences, not the similarities, that make "My Sweet Lord" the better song: the guitar solo intro, the better swing to the rhythm, the better melody over the second half of the chord sequence (after the "three notes" were done), and the use of the diminished chord toward the end of the sequence.
But what you are referring to is the arrangement not the melody of the song
BUT HIS HAIR THOUGH 😍😍😍❤❤❤
Regardless of whom your favourite Beatle may be, I think we can all unanimously agree that George had the most fabulous hair.
that's racist
@@suave-rider?
I thank God this song happened, thank you George.
We gotta start suing painters for painting a bowl of fruit. Surely some company owns the rights to painting a bowl of fruit.
My sweet George, mi Beatle favorito por siempre
I think in this day and age, it's pretty pointless to compare two different songs based solely off their melodies and chords. Because if you listen to "He's So Fine" and "My Sweet Lord", they have completely different production styles, overall instrumentation, and genres
I totally agree. These are two different songs in so many ways, and I really hadn't noticed their similarities. Now, Texas' "Black Eyed Boy," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps.." are outrageously matched! Cheeky to say the least..! And I don't think the argument that everyone borrows from others supports or defends this blatant musical steal!
Basically the tunes were similar but the songs were of different styles, one was a 60s Mowtown and the other was a 70s peace one.
The Bronx's Chiffons were assuredly NOT Motown. Good grief, do you think every black pop group back then was signed to Motown?? As far as different styles, MANY artists cover other artists' hits and style them differently, e.g. Lennon & McCartney's "In My Life" covered by Judy Collins. They don't try to pass them off as their own work, though.
Learn the difference between "The Girl Groups" (who came in different colors) and Motown, why doncha?
HotVoodooWitch, I'm not a music expert but I can't really add to my comment. To be quite honest I don't really understand the context of your reply.
I agree, Geoff. Your point was that the tune/ melody was the same, but the style was different. However, the Chiffons were classified in the "Brill Building" (NY) pop and also "Girl Groups" in the overall Pop / Rock umbrella. Most of the general public isn't familiar with the term Brill Building - a place in NY years ago produced popular music.
HotVodoo - in which sub-category, under the overall "British Invasion" classification would you place George Harrison - but in his post- Beatles phase?
what a lovely good man was George Harrison.
The way George says "tune" is my favourite thing.
When I first heard "My Sweet Lord," I thought to myself, "My goodness, that's 'He's so Fine.'" What I can't figure is that not only didn't George ever consider that, but none of the people around him did either. It's not like "He's so Fine" was some obscure song, it was a huge hit, a number 1 song, only seven years before "My Sweet Lord." Maybe George was busy in 1963 so he wasn't aware that it was being played all over the radio, but I can't believe that there wasn't somebody among his advisors that said, "Hey, wait a minute here..." Was he surrounding himself with Yes men? I tend to think if he had presented this to the other Beatles, one of them would have pointed out that it was "He's so Fine." I'm not a musicologist, but there's a difference between songs that sound kind of similar, which may happen quite a bit, and two songs being as close as these two songs are.
I don't think anyone should be able to copyright a three-note sequence.
I agree but even Lennon said in contemporary interviews at the time, George should have known better because it was so obviously taken.
dont sound the same... they are wrong
They aren’t that similar, calm down
Sometimes due to proximity and familiarity, one can’t see the forest from the trees.
When I here your song My sweet lord I feel at peace i love your music George 29 11 2001
At the very least, this had a happy ending. George ended up owning both songs and a whole lot of others.
I like George’s “version” better, and of course there are similarities but that’s bound to happen from time to time in music. There are only so many note combinations and melodies, that it’s gonna happen.
Thank you for posting.
It's probably out there somewhere. This is all that was included on the 'Dark Horse' DVD.
There is only so many notes on a scale. They are bound to intersect.
"I like both songs"... says it all.
100% some fan of George wanted to see him play live so they requested for him to appear with his guitar. “So Mr Harrison, how would play here comes the sun for example?” Nice!
I love Harrison's tunes including My Sweet Lord and as we all know there are only so many cords.... I am so sorry this happened - obviously George was chosen to sue because it was a great song and made a lot of money for the money grubbers. And I don't believe that Harrison consciously plagiarized "He's So Fine" but I wasn't the judge.
Probably not consciously. But he should have admitted his mistake and given credit to the original writer.
Worse yet. He accused of SUBCONCIOUS Plagiarism. That is like claiming 'unintentional gun point robbery'.
@@johnsarab4500
Haha. Not exactly. Even if plagiarism is unintentional it’s still considered plagiarism. In a similar way, imagine if you had truly never seen the Apple computer logo, but you independently decide you want to use the same one. Could you use it? Of course not.
In terms of criminal law, one could be convicted for gross negligence for killing someone while driving drunk for example - involuntary manslaughter.
@WheresPaul#1981 Exactly. I'm still not exactly sure what went on with Brian Wilson and "Surfing USA".
@@howie9751 They paid Chuck Berry immediately
My Sweet Nelson forever!
Is there more from this interview available? Thanks for posting this.
George was playing all the right notes, not necessarily in a different order.
LOL.
Underrated comment.
I'm not a songwriter but it seems that you have to be careful when a melody pops into your head as it may actually be a memory as opposed to something you thought up.
This is true. I wrote a song years ago which had the same distinctive chord intro to a song by the Stereophonics (She Takes Her Clothes Off). A friend pointed it out but I had never heard the song - at least, I wasn't consciously aware of it. I was just messing about on the guitar and the sequence sounded nice. True enough, the intro was the same (except mine was slowed down).
Has happened to me a few times. Then I think "oh shit" and have to abandon "my" idea.
One of the benefits of being in the Beatles is that you had two musicologists in the band- John and Paul. They often call out each other's plagiarism and altered a song to the point they could usually get away with. it.
@@Drenwickification "Come together" comes to mind
@@Assimandeli Come Together does not sound like a Chuck Berry song. It was simply the use of one word...."flattop".
PMc and JL may have been knowledgeable but they are not musicologists.
My Sweet George ! 🙏🙏🙏
he was the most beautiful person, within and without. We love you George !
Imagine if styles were copyrighted !
Hey you can't do that ! That's a 12 bar blues !
Hey don't do that, that's rock and roll !
I suppose this sort of thing happens throughout music history. I believe George unwittingly used the tune from "He's So Fine" but didn't really think about it. As a result, the outcome was that he had to share royalties from that song. The same sort of thing happened to Rod Stewart with "Forever Young," which had been written and recorded by Bob Dylan many years before. Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain" uses some lyrics and the tune from an old Scottish ballad. Going back even further, the tune from "God Save the Queen (or King)" is identical to "America" (My Country 'Tis of Thee).
Not true. God save the King was written first dumbass
@@zapkvr No one said anything different. To imply anything else would be pretty stupid.
Bob Dylan lifted a lot of public domain stuff - obscure folk songs and the like. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" was lifted from an old folk song called "Who's Gonna Count your chickens When I'm Gone?"
Only so many chords etc that can be played. Fair play to George for not suing Oasis when they ripped him off as well. He knew it was no issue
eh what song did Oasis rip off?
@@Monsterism solo of Supersonic is all the same notes as the solo/lick in My Sweet Lord
That last line. "It was something I could have treated positively or negatively, so I decided to do it this way..."
Every reggae song starts with a splash on the drums and the same rhythm. They should have ruled that the record that sold the most copies was the definitive. I'm joking. But I hope I've made the point.
Nope. What's yer point?
it's simply part of the creative process to take bits and pieces from a variety of different media you like and put them together to make something of your own. it's impossible to create a song that's never been heard before without taking concepts from others and giving it your own flair.
Yeah, who comes with a tune and thinks 'what inspired that'. I dreamt killer songs in my sleep (can't write or play), but woke with out a trace.
When one creates one never thinks what lead me to that! WHERE WOULD WE BE IF INFLUENCES HELD US BACK - PRE-FIRE AND STONE TOOLS. (Bro, I invented the arrow! Give me 10 pelts or come at me!)
We love you George.
I think that's why a lot of organic music (eg rock n roll) is not being made any more. Most good creative musicians are afraid of ripping others off.
He had to go to court to testify that the sixties were a blur? Nobody who was there remembers them.
lol I can't imagine having lived in the 60's. I'd barely remember anything too!
He had those Farrah Fawcett curls. 💅
Once I woke up and I had this melody in my head…I went to the piano, played it, and wrote it down…..I called it Tomorrow….
And then I realized it had the same notes and changes as Yesterday.
Why not write a song called today Leonardo
WHY DID IT COME TO THIS,COURt 😩GEORGE WAS/IS AN PHENOMENAL CHARACTER
I love the song, "My Sweet Love"!!!!!!
And yet Kid Rock ripped off "Werewolves of London" and "Sweet Home Alabama" on his "hit""All Summer Long" without a lawsuit.
No kidding. I hated that song because it was so obvious and would get under my skin.
Dallas Brubaker Every time it starts to play on the radio. I think they’re starting to play Werewolves of London. An annoying non original song.
Big difference. Those two songs are sampled on All Summer Long. Not only did he pay for the rights to use those songs, the original songwriters are credited on the album.
pretty sure he gave credit for those samples.
This is about nothing more than the greed of lawyers.
It started as George showing Billy Preston how easy it was to built a song based on another one, and he created My Sweet Lord based off He's So Fine on the spot. The problem was he decided or was encouraged to officially release it.
Christmas Eve by reflections we are supposed to see truth in each other's eyes. Merry Christmas
On the same note, nobody seems to talk about how "The Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears sounds very similar to "Free as a Bird" by John Lennon
The song is Em and A on the guitar. A very common progression.
Hello! Could you tell me where this interview is from and who is the man interviewing George Harrison? Thank you!
From the Old Grey Whistle Test with Bob Harris. It was a BBC2 show in the 70's and 80"s. Not sure of the exact year but likely to be 1976.
Thank you very much, sir! I needed it because of a presentation I gave to my students in which I talked about plagiarism. So, obviously I need to give credit!
I think they were saying that My Sweet Lord 'sounded' like He's So Fine. Harrison may have subconsiously wrote his song with the melody from the other song. Did he ever say so. I suppose he wouldn't, but was there any suggestion of it. The songs sound so different, it's a wonder there was a lawsuit.
Studio Musicians played on all the tracks on Rubber Soul.
We always lose the best... its so true the good die young....
The songs have exactly the saem structure!
Chord = accord of notes in a scale. Improvising chords on a melody. Rhythm and timing ..........are the words interchangeable? I think George got the raw end of the deal.
Billy Preston might have helped George a little in the Scorsese documentary you should see it
Peter Frampton said it best: "There's only so many notes". For some contrast though listen to Roberta Kelly's disco cover of "My Sweet Lord".
Ronnie Mack wrote He's So Fine for The Chiffons. The Chiffons re-recorded "He's So Fine" with members of the Tokens and with Carole King on piano, and it was released by Laurie Records in late 1962, reaching number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B chart in March 1963.
Sadly songwriter Ronnie Mack died of Hodgkins Lymphoma in November 1963. He was only 23.
Bright Tunes Music, the company which owned the rights to "He's So Fine", won a notable lawsuit against George Harrison, starting in 1971, for subconscious plagiarism of Mack's tune in writing "My Sweet Lord". Much of the eventual settlement of $587,000 damages was paid to Mack's surviving family.
it is weird that james taylor was recording something in the way she moves for apple records at abbey road when george "came up" with the idea for something ...
My sweet lord is one of the best songs in history
Our witness to the truth during the lights shows
"A good artiste borrows, a greatt artiste STEALS!..."
To me the Beatles' "I Feel Fine" is very much like Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" with the main difference that the Beatles song is guitar dominated
Elvis mixed his "Little Sister" with The Beatles' "Get Back" live on stage, and it sounded like one song.
all songs soud the same,
After reading a lot of the other comments, as a songwriter, I really do not believe George would have intentionally ripped off someone else's song. When Paul woke up with the tune of Yesterday, he ran that past a lot of friends to see if it was original or someone else's tune. His father had so many tunes he would play. As it turned out, Yesterday is like a tune his father used to play. The Beatles in their early days listened to classical music to get a line here or there that sounded unique. They'd change it up a bit, add to it, and come up with a song. John made the comment about how he and everyone else that wrote songs in that era would "borrow" from one another. If George was really fond of the melody in He's So Fine, he could have changed up the melody enough to not be sued for copyright infringement. There are countless songs with the same chord progression and vibe. A gifted songwriter can take a given progression & vibe as a basis, and then go off in a different direction with the melody. George was definitely gifted. He did not have to intentionally use the same melody thinking no one would notice.
How about nirvana''s "something in the way" compared to George's "something"?
As a songwriter for many decades. it is always a danger that the melody coming out of you is something you are subconsciously remembering from somewhere else. It doesn't have to be intentional. Eric Clapton said he accidentally stole part of "Let it Grow" from "Stairway to heaven." It happens to every songwriter. I often have to ask my wife, 'Is this mine or did I steal it?" I don't think George did it on purpose but he lifted that melody from 'he's So Fine."
My Favorite ❤️ Bealte 🤫🙋🇺🇸. George Harrison ⭐✌️
I read a book that had the line "And then they left"
I'm gonna sue that book. I wrote an essay in 3rd grade with that line in 40 years ago.
Robbing so-and-so's
what year is this interview from?
spot a tune.
It's actually very common to unintentionally write a song or.melody u heard from something else, without realizing that the origins were not your conscience but actually your.memory. It happens all the time for creatives, I accidentally wrote a mcfly melody recently from when I listened to them when I was 7
I think you mean subconscious not conscience...
"Hey hey, my my, you don't have to live like the one I love!" by Young Tom REM
Can anyone tell me the other song? Exactly
You don’t get sued for chord progressions. Melody lines however , belong to whoever copyrights them first. My Sweet Lord is obviously based on the melody line of He’s So Fine. Every one who hears the two songs knows it. George knows it too.
I never knew that until the lawsuit. I never thought of them the same before that.
Bs
So what was the final verdict?
George was found guilty of plagiarism and had to pay approximately a million dollars. However, he ultimately bought the rights to the song 'He's So Fine' to avoid any future accusations of plagiarism, once and for all.
My Sweet George
I heard a sax instrumental on an LA jazz station one day and I thought "that's My Sweet Lord", then I thought "no, that's He's so Fine"
They sounded identical and I never knew which song they were covering...I guess both of them because they are so alike
PS I love both versions
I wonder how he'd feel about Texas' "Black Eyed Boy." I can't hear that without thinking of the words of a certain other famous record by George! Yes, there are many accidental appropriations of other records, but really, how could Texas audaciously use that particular musical descent without hearing its particularly obvious antecedent?
not only are the songs in the same key,..but they both go almost the exact same way and the bridge refrains are real similar but George could have plead "paying homage" or "parody" which might have saved him lots of $$$ in the end,.
I write a lot of songs. And I always ask around to people, have you heard this before?
I am soooooo bad.