Two for Tuesday 9/5/2023 Two Songs with Similar Tunes #twofortues #countrymusic

Today’s Two for Tuesday songs are not similar in lyrical theme. They are similar in tune, according to the lawsuit that was filed.

You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma by the country music duo David Frizzell and Shelly West

AND

Rocky Top by Felice and Boudeleau Bryant

You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma is a song on the soundtrack album of the 1980 Clint Eastwood comedy/drama movie, Any Which Way You Can (the sequel to Every Which Way But Loose). Frizzell and West had a decent hit with the song as it stayed one week at No. 1 in the Top 40 Country chart and 11 weeks overall on the country charts. The song was written by Larry Collins and Sandy Pinkard.

Felice and Boudeleau Bryant wrote the country/bluegrass song Rocky Top in 1967. The Osborne Brothers were the first to include Rocky Top in their standard repertoire at performances, but the song didn’t achieve mass popularity until Lynn Anderson’s version reached No. 17 on the Billboard Country Top 100 in 1970.

The Bryants sued Collins and Pinkard for copyright infringement. They claimed the tune to You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma is a plagiarized tune to their song Rocky Top. They won the lawsuit and are now credited as having co-written the song.

Apparently, when you slow down Rocky Top or, conversely, speed up You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma, the tunes are so much alike that the court/jury agreed with the Bryants that copyright infringement had, indeed, occurred.