Been Caught Stealing: 5 Songs That Were Pillaged For Other Songs

This week's songs are from Claude François, Jorge Ben, Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, Pino Donaggio, and Marianne Faithful

My family frequently uses the saying “Don’t ‘yuck’ someone’s ‘yum’,” often in relation to food. If someone enjoys something, don’t ruin it with your opinion. Their taste is their preference.

Having said that, my kids are getting more into music. It’s something I want to encourage, which means I cannot police or guide their tastes towards my own. That can be a losing battle. Instead, if they express interest in something, I’ll try to get on board. Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo—there’s things to like about all of them.

My strategy is to offer a complementary artist based on whatever they're into, embrace their tastes and recommend something to expand it ever so slightly. Great, you like Taylor Swift—give a listen to Jess Williamson; Olivia Rodrigo—she does a song that’s similar to Paramore. When you have something you like, trust that there’s so much more out there.

In fact, I used the Olivia Rodrigo/Paramore connection as a teaching example to get to one line I will draw in the sand: I’ll play anything in the car except Ed Sheeran. We discussed how “Good 4 u” lifts from “Misery Business” and Rodrigo gave credit to Paramore, and then I showed them Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” I’m happy to leave my reasons for the ban at Sheeran being unoriginal. I can avoid yucking anyone’s yum without having to eat it alongside them.

But Bob Dylan lifted all sorts of old folk melodies and lines, and interpolated them into something entirely new. So did the Beatles—as a band, and solo. So did Led Zeppelin.

There’s dozens of more recent cases of this—Sam Smith & Tom Petty; Pharrell & Robin Thicke and Marvin Gaye; Bruno Mars and the Police, Bruno Mars and the Gap Band…pretty much Bruno Mars’ whole career.

There’s a quote—appropriate for a number of reasons, given I’ve seen attributed to Igor Stravinsky, and Pablo Picasso—I first heard from Bill Murray (who attributed it to Picasso):

The good ones borrow, the great ones steal

Here are 5 songs that were plundered for other, more well-known songs.

“It’s how rock & roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.” - Elvis Costello

Claude François - “Comme d'Habitude”

Claude François is the most French name ever. The story goes, songwriter Paul Anka was on a beach in the Mediterranean when he heard “Comme d'Habitude” playing on a nearby radio. It struck him so hard that he flew to Paris to buy the melody. Anka had a friendly relationship with Frank Sinatra, who always wanted Anka to write a song for him. Before announcing his retirement, Sinatra let Anka know he was about to call it a career after an upcoming album. With the pressure on, Anka then very quickly cranked out the lyrics to the song as we know it now: “My Way.”

The original lyrics to “Comme d’Habitude” suggest the singer is passive, drifting through life, sad and alone. In “My Way,” the end result is the same, but the singer is claiming victory in the face of failure.

Apparently Anka wasn’t the only one with the idea to interpret the song, as David Bowie had taken a crack at writing an English version of “Comme d’Habitude” that never got released; he ultimately turned it into “Life on Mars?” On Hunky Dory, Bowie gives the inspiration credit not to Claude François or Paul Anka, a footnote reads “Inspired by Frankie.”

“Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king” - Bob Dylan

Jorge Ben - “Taj Mahal”

Jorge Ben is a multifaceted, incredibly versatile and downright fun Brazilian musician—samba, Tropicália, bossa nova, you name it. Ben first recorded “Taj Mahal” on 1975’s Gil e Jorge, his collaborative album with Gilberto Gil. He then recorded a polished version—cutting it by 10 minutes, adding electric guitar for a lively charge for 1976’s África Brasil.

On holiday in Brazil for Carnivale with Elton John and Freddie Mercury in 1978, Rod Stewart found the album playing “everywhere.” So when recording Blondes Have More Fun later that year, the melody was lodged in his brain and he somehow managed to fill in the “do be do be do be” of Ben’s song with something somehow much more stupid:

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy
Come on, sugar, tell me so (tell me so)
If you really need me, just reach out and touch me
Come on, honey, tell me so

Ben ended up suing Stewart for plagiarism and Stewart quickly admitted to lifting the melody unconsciously. According to Ben, it was an “amicable” settlement and the songs royalties were donated to UNICEF. But it doesn’t stop there…

Guitarist Jim Cregan said they lifted the song from the Rolling Stones’ disco-flavored “Miss You” and that his whole part is "doing a Nile Rogers impression.” The synthesizer riff was lifted from Bobby Womack’s “(If You Want My Love) Put Something Down On It,” and co-writer Duane Hitchings saw the whole thing as a spoof of the Bee Gees.

“Stealing, you’'ll go far in life. Actually, there’s something funny about getting away with it.” - Mike Judge

Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention - “King Kong”

As Frank Zappa tells it, he woke up one morning, had a journalist stick a microphone in his face and introduce him to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. A year prior, airing some grievances about credit and public perception of his contributions in the Beatles, Lennon had spoken of Zappa and how he claimed ownership for what he did. Despite the abrupt introduction, the trio got along well enough that Zappa invited them to his shows at the Fillmore East in 1971. On the second night, Lennon and Ono joined Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on stage to jam. One of the songs they played was Zappa’s “King Kong,” from 1968’s Uncle Meat. Based on their agreement, Zappa sent Lennon and Ono a copy of the recording, which he was allowed to use. What set Zappa off was that Lennon and Ono not only changed the name of the song (to “Jam Rag”) for Sometimes in New York, but that they gave full credit of the song to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, leaving out Zappa and the Mothers of Invention entirely.

While I’ve never been able to really get into Zappa, “King Kong” is a cool, loose and jazzy prog jam I can’t get on board with. The pulsating bass and unhinged sax are always an exciting pair. So for those keeping track—on the Avant-garde scale, atonal, fuzzed out saxophone > atonal, nonsensical screaming.

“In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity” - Hunter S. Thompson

Pino Donaggio - “Io Che Non Vivo”

Frank Sinatra isn’t the only one to get a signature song this way. While performing at the San Remo Music Festival in 1965, Dusty Springfield was moved to tears watching fellow performer Pino Donaggio sing “Io Che Non Vivo”—and she didn’t even understand what the song was about. So she commissioned an instrumental track and sought some English lyrics. With a deadline approaching, she contacted her manager, who was out with the Yardbirds’s manager and trying to get to a party. Together, in a hotel room and a cab, in the span of an hour, they wrote “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”

Both songs have a big, brassy Bond Song dramatic opening before settling into their complaint. Donaggio’s original sounds like any other early 50s/60s teen crooner. Not to say that it’s bad—just that Dusty Springfield’s voice pushes the song out from dramatic into a full-on tragedy. The begging to be believed is out of necessity.

“He just stole from me. But I steal from everybody.” - Woody Guthrie

Marianne Faithfull - “Plaisir D’Amour”

“Can’t Help Falling In Love,” is a song with such force that Elvis used it as his closer. He ended most concerts and specials with it. It was also his career closer, as it was the final song at his final concert at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis less than 2 months before he died. It’s been recorded by countless artists—Barry Manilow, Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam, UB40, etc—it’s irrefutably timeless. The melody dates back to 1784, written by French composer Jean Paul Égide Martin, who served both Marie Antionette and Napoleon.

The original song was recorded many times, including by Joan Baez in 1961, the same year Elvis sung “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in Blue Hawaii. I’ve opted for Marianne Faithfull’s version, recorded in 1965, as it features both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Pre-Zeppelin, the two got to know one another as session musicians on projects like this one. As part of Led Zeppelin, they would interpolate lyrics and melodies from countless American bluesmen, most notably Willie Dixon’s “You Need Love.” Here, they’re just keeping a classic alive.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy listening.