Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke have been ordered to pay Marvin Gaye’s family $7.4 million (£4.8 million), after a US court ruled they copied the R&B legend's song ‘Got To Give It Up’ on their mega-selling worldwide hit ‘Blurred Lines’.
But Pharrell isn’t the first artist to be accused of ripping off another artist’s music - far from it, in fact.
MORE:
Only recently, Sam Smith came to an ‘immediate and amicable agreement’ with singer Tom Petty because of similarities between his huge No.1 single ‘Stay With Me’ and the US musician’s 1989 hit ‘I Won’t Back Down’.
A spokesman for Sam also stated that Tom would be given a writing credit, while also adding that the similarities were “a complete coincidence".
Prior to that, Madonna famously referred to Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ as ‘reductive’ because of its likeness to her 1989 hit ‘Express Yourself’ and, just to ram the point home, even included a mash-up of the two songs on her ‘MDNA’ world tour.
And who remembers the Girls Aloud ballad ‘Life Got Cold’? Just us? Well no, actually. The Gallagher brothers certainly do, what with the similarities to the Oasis anthem ‘Wonderwall’.
But don’t just take our word for it, get your lug holes round some recent tunes that have been accused of bearing more than a striking resemblance to some other rather well-known songs...
Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines' vs. Marvin Gaye - 'Got To Give It Up'
Sam Smith 'Stay With Me' vs Tom Petty 'I Won't Back Down'
Lady Gaga 'Born This Way' vs Madonna 'Express Yourself'
One Direction 'Best Song Ever' vs The Who 'Baba O'Riley'
Chris Brown 'Yeah 3x' vs Calvin Harris 'I'm Not Alone'
Bruno Mars 'Locked Out Of Heaven' vs The Police 'Roxanne'
Katy Perry 'California Gurls' vs Kesha 'Tik Tok'
Coldplay 'Clocks' vs David Guetta 'When Love Takes Over'
Girls Aloud 'Life Got Cold' vs Oasis 'Wonderwall'