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Al Bano's Copyright Cases against MJ

mj_frenzy

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The "Will You Be There" Copyright Case that Al Bano brought against MJ wasn't the only one.

Is there any info available about the rest of them (which the italian singer lost them all) ?

Regarding these two songs ("Will You Be There" & "I Cigni Di Balaka"), they sound (melodically) identical, don't they ?
 
They do, at least they are similar. But both resemble "Bless You for Being an Angel" (1939) by The Ink Spots. That's why Al Bano's claim was eventually rejected by the court.

 
MichaelD said:
They do, at least they are similar. But both resemble "Bless You for Being an Angel" (1939) by The Ink Spots. That's why Al Bano's claim was eventually rejected by the court.

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I think that both sides were vindicated on account of that song.
 
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Woah I was watching this documentary called https://vimeo.com/14912890 'Everything is a remix' analaysing bits of popular culture and where it comes from and its sort of weird seeing it in the music industry. I so hear Will you be there being inspred by that cigni song but I can't hear either resembling that 1939 song not one bit
 
Musically, the situation is actually hilarious (at least to me).

Al Bano's original song:


How he performs it now:


Who ripped off who?
 
That motif is similar, but like said it existed before Al Bano's song - The Ink Spots song and I also heard that even that one took it from some ancient East Indian motif. Don't know if the latter is true though, but that's what I read somewhere.

Not long ago I saw a picture that Al Bano posted on his FB about himself in front of an MJ memorial in Germany and he said complimentary words about him, so I guess he got over losing the lawsuit.
 
Will You Be There and the Al Bano song sound totally alike to me. But neither one sounds anything like the Ink Spots song. I don't hear that at all.
 
barbee0715 said:
Will You Be There and the Al Bano song sound totally alike to me. But neither one sounds anything like the Ink Spots song. I don't hear that at all.
Click to expand...

How come you don't hear it? That particular motif is the same in all three songs, only the Ink Spots song is slower. Actually this was why MJ won the lawsuit. They showed how the motif is not original in the Al Bano song and they used the Ink Spots song to show it.

The second lawsuit was a claim of plagiarism by Italian songwriter Albano Carrisi who claimed that "Will You Be There" was copied from his song "I Cigni di Balaka" ("The Swans of Balaka"). After seven years, an Italian court ruled in favor of Carrisi because Jackson failed to show up to court. In a follow-up case some months later, the Court ruled in favor of Jackson and rejected the claim, stating that while the two songs were very similar, they both may have been inspired by The Ink Spots' 1939 hit "Bless You for Being an Angel".[SUP][8][/SUP]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_You_Be_There#Legal_issues
 
Yes-I understood that's why they won the case. So I went back and listened to this Ink Spot song again.
I'll try again.
(Maybe because I grew up on old 30's, 40's and 50's music bc of my parents so I just hear the Ink Spots).

Edit. I just listened again and hummed it back and maybe a little the way it builds.
 
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It may sound different to you because it's heard in a different context. But it's the sequence of notes that matters, not the pitch nor the tempo. :)
 
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