Members rasputin1963 Posted December 10, 2007 Members Share Posted December 10, 2007 I once heard that, when it comes to copyrighting your songs, melodies, harmonies and lyrics can be copyrighted--- but not song titles? Henry Mancini and Deep Blue Something both wrote a song called "Breakfast At Tiffany's". God knows how many songs have been called, "I Love You". Does this mean I could write a song today and call it "Moon River" if I wanted to?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurdy Posted December 10, 2007 Members Share Posted December 10, 2007 I once heard that, when it comes to copyrighting your songs, melodies, harmonies and lyrics can be copyrighted--- but not song titles?Henry Mancini and Deep Blue Something both wrote a song called "Breakfast At Tiffany's".God knows how many songs have been called, "I Love You".Does this mean I could write a song today and call it "Moon River" if I wanted to?? Yep. It's true. Write ten songs called "Moon River", if you feel like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted December 10, 2007 Members Share Posted December 10, 2007 Does this mean I could write a song today and call it "Moon River" if I wanted to?? Sure does. The only actionable problem would be if you tried to convince people that your "Moon River" was the other, possibly better-known "Moon River", in some way to mislead them into buying it. But in terms of the title itself, knock yourself out. Call your song "Satisfaction", or "A Day In the Life", or "Hound Dog", or "Thriller", or whatever you want. By the way, the example that just came to my mind was that there are at least three songs named "Stupid Girl" (the Stones, Neil Young and Garbage) that are all completely different songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted December 11, 2007 Members Share Posted December 11, 2007 What about "The Power of Love" - of which entirely different songs with that title have been released by Huey Lewis & The News, Luther Vandross, Celine Dion and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Didn't TLC release an entire album that had songs which had the same titles as other songs (i.e. "Ain't To Proud to Beg")? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 11, 2007 Author Members Share Posted December 11, 2007 But in terms of the title itself, knock yourself out. Call your song "Satisfaction", or "A Day In the Life", or "Hound Dog", or "Thriller", or whatever you want. ....so we've established that one can do that. But do any of you think that it's in bad form? Disrespectful? Tasteless? Ignorant? Or is "all fair in love and war" ? All icons must fall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Eagles / The Cars - Victim Of Love. Yes you can do it. No, I don't have a problem with it when someone does it, but I'd try to avoid knowingly doing it myself. But do any of you think that it's in bad form? Disrespectful? Tasteless? Ignorant? I guess it would depend on the individual case. If someone tried doing a Stones style song (with a different bit similar type of melody and arrangement) and named it "Satisfaction", in most cases, I'd consider that to be all of the above... unless it was an intentional parody or something. But just using the different name, with completely different everything else (as in the example I listed at the start of the post) doesn't strike me as ignorant or out of bounds. Well, if the second writer(s) were unaware of the first song, I guess you could call that ignorance... but how many songs have there been? How many with "I Love You" (or a variation thereof) in the title? You can't know them all, and some phrases are just too universal to put out of bounds just because they were used in the course of someone else's conversation / book / song... Just my opinion. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Well... at this very moment I'm in sort of that... My band has this song, called "dejate amar".There's a Texmex band with a new hit, named exactly the same.And then, there's this other guy with a single... Dejate Amar. I don't actually care. We're not the Tex Mex or that other dude. Ours is "WoM - Dejate Amar". period. No sweat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Gus, translation for the gringo please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Amar is love, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Yes. The title in English is> Let me Love you (or something like... "-you- allow -me and/or others- to love you") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kendrix Posted December 11, 2007 Members Share Posted December 11, 2007 Yes its true.Othewise I could have sued some artists taht used names of my song afte4r I copyrighted them.As I am - A. Keyesnew age Girl ( forgot the artists name) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted December 11, 2007 Moderators Share Posted December 11, 2007 I was putting out albums under the band name "Telling Stories" long before that Tracey Chapman person decided to use it for a song/album title. So far, her attorney hasn't called me. Makes for some interesting Google searches, though I'm not sure if I've sold a CD because of it. I am very sure that our album "Greyhound" has benefited from some other band's recent success with the song title "Coming Undone" - it's our most downloaded song by far, our single biggest moneymaking cut, and I can see from our website stats that at least half the people who stumble onto it do so by searching for the other band's cut by that title. Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted December 11, 2007 Members Share Posted December 11, 2007 On a related note, can I name my band "Peter Gabriel"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 11, 2007 Members Share Posted December 11, 2007 Yeah, Gwen Stefani did a song called "What Are You Waiting For?" and didn't even ask me permission ...and my song with that title had been released on a European compilation CD several years prior. Similar title things happen all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 OK. I'm gonna sit right down and write me a new song called "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" What do those kiddoes know from music today, anyway?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 Yes. The title in English is> Let me Love you (or something like... "-you- allow -me and/or others- to love you") "Let Yourself Love" ? ie., "Let Yourself Fall In Love (With Me)" or "Let Yourself Fall In Love (Again)" ? One would have to listen to the lyric, as it unfolded, to discover exactly what the speaker meant.... Slightly OT: [by the way, if you've noticed that the Spanish word Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 [by the way, if you've noticed that the Spanish word Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 Very cool. Please continue - Khan, Ali... And then maybe Ken can respond and tell us what his thoughts behind his screen name are... "Ali" is almost certainly a derivative of "Allah" (God). Perhaps it means "of God" ? Ken? (Enquiring minds want to know...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jon Gnash Posted December 12, 2007 Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 On a related note, can I name my band "Peter Gabriel"? Dio Forces Dios Name Change Alternative rockers alter name to avoid legal tangle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 "Ali" is almost certainly a derivative of "Allah" (God). Perhaps it means "of God" ? And "Khan" is a Mongolian term for leader or ruler. Ken? (Enquiring minds want to know...) Yeah +1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jon Gnash Posted December 12, 2007 Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 Yeah, Gwen Stefani did a song called "What Are You Waiting For?" and didn't even ask me permission ...and my song with that title had been released on a European compilation CD several years prior. Similar title things happen all the time. Aparently there are hundreds of bands named Manna. Imho this Manna was pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted December 12, 2007 Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 It can be disappointing I once wrote a tune "Craig Anderton is a big fat Doodie Head" only to find that it's the 6th most popular song title in the USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Indeed... using "du" (german) or "tu" (spanish) to talk to someone with an authority degree and not being exactly your friend may sound as disrespectful. Usted = Your Mercy. That is so correct, sir. And then, you american cats use "you" for everything but still use the person's last name to make the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flatfinger Posted December 12, 2007 Members Share Posted December 12, 2007 I will never forget my first semester spanish class where a student was reading aloud and pronounced Mr." Pen~a" ( no I don't know how to get the tilde on top!!) as simply Mr.Pena and the instructor corrected him by saying " you just called him MR. PENIS!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kelly808 Posted December 14, 2007 Members Share Posted December 14, 2007 I am so gonna write a album with the following songs that I wrote 1.Stairway to Heaven2.Freebird3.Hotel California4.Bohemian Rhapsody5. Hey Jude6. Little Wing7. Sympathy for the Devil8. Walk This Way9. Achy Breaky Heart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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