A jury concluded Thursday that British singer Ed Sheeran didn’t steal key components of Marvin Gaye’s classic 1970s tune Let’s Get It On when he created his hit song Thinking Out Loud.
As the jury answered the single question of whether Sheeran proved he didn’t infringe upon the copyright in the affirmative, the crooner briefly put his hands over his face in relief before standing and hugging his lawyer.
As jurors left the courtroom, Sheeran quietly mouthed “thank you” in their direction. He then spoke for about 10 minutes with the plaintiffs, including the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-created the 1973 soul classic with Gaye. They hugged each other and smiled.
Sheeran later addressed reporters outside of the courthouse.
A New York City court has ruled Thursday that Ed Sheeran’s hit song Thinking Out Loud did not plagiarize Marvyn Gaye’s 1970s classic Let’s Get It On. Sheeran claimed vindication while other songwriters breathed a sigh of relief.
The verdict came after a two-week trial that featured a courtroom performance by Sheeran as the singer insisted, sometimes angrily, that the trial was a threat to all musicians who create their own music.
Sheeran sat with his legal team throughout the trial, defending himself against the lawsuit by the heirs of Townsend, who created the 1973 soul classic with Gaye. They said Thinking Out Loud had so many similarities to Let’s Get It On that it violated the song’s copyright protection.
At the trial’s start, attorney Ben Crump told jurors on behalf of the Townsend heirs that Sheeran himself sometimes performed the two songs together. The jury saw video of a concert in Switzerland in which Sheeran can be heard segueing on stage between Let’s Get It On and Thinking Out Loud. Crump said that was “smoking gun” proof he stole from the famous tune.
When Sheeran testified, he repeatedly picked up a guitar resting behind him on the witness stand to demonstrate how he seamlessly creates “mash-ups” of songs during concerts to “spice it up a bit” for his sizeable crowds.
Singer Ed Sheeran is in the middle of a lawsuit in New York City, accused of copying Marvin Gaye’s classic Let’s Get it On. Songwriter Dan Kanter explains what’s behind the case and why making original music can get complicated.
The English pop star’s cheerful attitude on display under questioning from his attorney, Ilene Farkas, all but vanished under cross-examination.
“When you write songs, somebody comes after you,” Sheeran said during his testimony as he explained that the case was being closely watched by others in the industry.
He insisted that he stole nothing from Let’s Get it On when he wrote his tune.
Heirs wanted to protect father’s legacy
Townsend’s heirs said in their lawsuit that Thinking Out Loud had “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” that made it obvious that it had copied Let’s Get It On, a song that has been featured in numerous films and commercials and scored hundreds of millions of streams, spins and radio plays in the past half century.
Sheeran’s hit song, released in 2014, won a Grammy for song of the year. His lawyers argued that the songs shared versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression freely available to all songwriters.
Gaye was killed in 1984 at age 44, shot by his father as he tried to intervene in a fight between his parents. He had been a Motown superstar since the 1960s, although his songs released in the 1970s made him a generational musical giant.
Townsend, who also wrote the 1958 R&B doo-wop hit For Your Love, was a singer, songwriter and lawyer who died in 2003. Kathryn Townsend Griffin, his daughter, testified during the trial that she thought Sheeran was “a great artist with a great future.”
She said she had hoped the lawsuit would not result in a trial, “but I have to protect my father’s legacy.”