Plagiarism lawsuits against The Beatles

Come Together

Chuck Berry's publisher sued the Beatles over the song Come Together which it was claimed plagiarized the Chuck Berry song "You Can't Catch Me" from 1956. The lawsuit did not come from Berry who was a fan of The Beatles.

You can see the similarities in these lines:

Berry: Here come a flat-top, he was movin' up with me
Lennon: Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly

Though the suit was settled out of court, it seems rather opportunistic because, as one can hear, the two songs are completely different. It is likely the words were a creative "tip of the hat" to Berry either consciously or subconsciously. The Beatles covered many Chuck Berry songs during their carrer and Berry even played with members of the band latter in their careers.

My Sweet Lord

The release of the song My Sweet Lord on November 23, 1970 as a single (and latter on Harrison's critically-acclaimed solo album All Things Must Pass) began a protracted legal battle over copyright infringement. The lawsuit, Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, alleged that Harrison had illegally plagiarized the 1962 song "He's So Fine" written by Ronnie Mack and performed by the Chiffons. In 1976, a US district court ruled that Harrison had "subconsciously" plagiarized the song.

Unlike the Lennon suit, the case against Harrison was much stronger as the two songs in question had a great deal of musical similarities. So much so that Rolling Stone magazine's initial review of the song referred to it as an obvious re-write of the Chiffons' 'He's So Fine' (Ben Gerson, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971, "Reviews: George Harrison All Things Must Pass")