3 Famous Bands That Admitted To Stealing Music and Got Away With It

Bands are caught stealing music all the time. It’s something that happens totally by accident and wholly on purpose in what seems like equal amounts. But some bands, particularly famous bands, have straight-up admitted to nicking a few elements of their songs here and there. And they have, for the most part, gotten away with it. Let’s look at a few examples.

The Beatles

Remember “Golden Slumbers” from The Beatles’ iconic 1969 album Abbey Road? Paul McCartney once hilariously admitted to straight-up stealing the first stanza of the Victorian-era poem “Cradle Song” by Thomas Dekker for use in “Golden Slumbers”. While sitting down for an Apple Podcast interview titled McCartney: A Life In Lyrics, The Beatles, and McCartney openly admitted to using part of the old poem in his song. Host Paul Muldoon tried to sway him away from the dirty word “stealing” by asking if it was an old example of sampling.

“Well, it’s called stealing,” McCartney said with his dry sense of humor. “But because I don’t read music, I didn’t know what the melody that went with it was. So I put my own melody to it and just took these words.”

Oasis

Noel Gallagher made a surprising admission back in the day that “Shakermaker”, a song off of Oasis’ legendary 1994 debut record Definitely Maybe, features a melody and some lyrics directly taken from another song. That nicked melody comes from the track “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” by the pop one-hit wonder The Hillside Singers, who were contracted to produce the song as a jingle for Coca-Cola. The company, of course, sued Oasis, and a six-figure payment was due soon after. They didn’t exactly “get away with it,” but the song is still around, so…

“We ripped it off, so they had the right to sue us,” Gallagher said. “Fair enough. People will steal from other bands but change the lyrics. We just did the same thing but kept some of the same lyrics in. We drink Pepsi now.”

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin had an unfortunate history of nicking other musicians’ work. But one theft was particularly bold. If you listen to the band’s famous song “Whole Lotta Love”, you won’t just hear elements inspired by blues artist Willie Dixon. You’ll hear whole parts of his song “You Need Love” from 1962. In retrospect, Robert Plant joked about the situation and said it was later paid for, but it was clear they had gotten away with boldly stealing directly from another artist.

“I think when Willie Dixon turned on the radio in Chicago twenty years after he wrote his blues, he thought, ‘That’s my song,’” said Plant. “When we ripped it off, I said to Jimmy, ‘Hey, that’s not our song.’ And he said, ‘Shut up and keep walking.’”

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