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One Direction accused of “ripping off” Def Leppard

By | Published on Wednesday 18 December 2013

One Direction

Def Leppard are reportedly consulting their lawyers after noticing that the title track of One Direction’s new album, ‘Midnight Memories’, has a chorus quite similar to their 1987 hit, ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’.

An unnamed source told The Mirror: “Music lawyers will routinely scour hits like this one to see if there is any evidence that a band has either copied or cleverly mimicked a Def Leppard song. These cases can often take weeks to sort out because we are not talking about peanuts here – the 1D album is selling millions and if the title track goes out as a single it will generate even more money”.

I’m not sure if that source is claiming that all music lawyers routinely scour boy-band songs for similarities with Def Leppard tracks, or if they really mean that legal reps for the band themselves do, though even that sounds like an awful lot of work. Checking out every pop release in case it is ripping of Sheffield’s finest. They must have been so pleased when they actually found one that did (allegedly).

The band will be extra pleased to know that one of the co-writers of ‘Midnight Memories’, Julian Bunetta, recently signed a worldwide publishing deal with Universal. Last year, Def Leppard fell out so hard with the recordings side of Universal Music that they began re-recording copies of their old hits to self-release, rather than giving permission for the label to release the originals on download stores.

Earlier this year, One Direction were also accused of pinching part of The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ on their single ‘Best Song Ever’. Rather than go legal though, Pete Townshend said that he was flattered and considered it a tribute. So, maybe that’s how Def Leppard will leave it too. Either way, you can compare the two songs here:

One Direction – Midnight Memories

Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me



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