Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and purchase an item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.
Alicia Keys has been blazing the charts with her new hit song ‘Girl on Fire’ but she is about to get cooled down after being slapped with a lawsuit copyright infringement over the song “Girl on Fire.” According to THR, songwriter Earl Shuman claims Keys song has parts that sound too much like his composition, “Lonely Boy,” later being made into the song, “Hey There Lonely Girl.” Listen to the song below.
The plaintiff is Earl Shuman, an accomplished songwriter who in 1962 co-authored the composition, “Lonely Boy,” a song that reached No. 2 on Billboard’s chart in 1970 after being recorded by Eddie Holman as “Hey There Lonely Girl.”
Shuman believes there’s something about Keys’ song that sounds too familiar. Unfortunately, his lawsuit is rather bereft of important details, substituting an entertainment blogger’s ear in lieu of any demonstration of substantial similarity between “Girl on Fire” and “Lonely Boy/Girl.”
That’s not to say there won’t be people out there who won’t compare the two songs (here and here) and spot a likeness, particularly in the way that Keys intones three notes while singing the words “lonely girl.”
One of the people who noted a supposed similarity was Roger Friedman at Showbiz411, who wrote in late November of what he believed to be an uncredited sample. “In the middle of the song, Alicia sings a couplet or so from Eddie Holman’s 1970 classic ‘Hey There Lonely Girl,'” he wrote. “The song was written by Leon Carr and Earl Shuman, who are both gone to rock ‘n’ roll heaven.”
I don’t hear it…On a side note check out Keys new song, “Brand New Me.”
Photo from PR Photos
