British pop singer Ed Sheeran has been hit with a second lawsuit over his song 'Thinking Out Loud'.
A company which owns a third of the rights to Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On' is seeking US$100 million in damages, accusing Sheeran of copying the tune, beat, harmonies, bassline, chorus and percussion of the soul classic.
The family of Gaye's co-writer Edward Townsend filed a suit over the similarities between the songs in 2016. A federal judge dismissed the complaint because the complainants failed to serve most of the defendants.
'Thinking Out Loud' was released in 2014 on Sheeran's album X. It spent a whole year in the UK top 40, and won the ginger singer two Grammy Awards.
'Let's Get It On' was released in 1973, and is Gaye's best-known song.
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Sheeran last year settled another plagiarism case, this one over his song 'Photograph', also from X. He settled that case out of court, with the plaintiff saying Sheeran "copied and exploited, without authorisation or credit - on a breathtaking scale" from a song called 'Amazing', released five years earlier by X Factor UK winner Matt Cardle.
The case was settled with no admission of guilt, but a musicologist told the Guardian at the time the songs were so similar, "it is hard to dispute that it was obviously plagiarised".
Gaye's family infamously won a long-running case against Robin Thicke and Pharrell, proving 'Blurred Lines' borrowed a bit too much from Gaye's 'Got to Give It Up.'
Newshub.
