Same song, different lawsuit. Music producer Mark Ronson is battling another lawsuit over his hit single, “Uptown Funk,” this time, accusing him of using elements of Zapp & Roger’s (“Zapp”) 1980 funk track, “More Bounce to the Ounce.” The complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York on September 12, by family-owned music publishing house, Lastrada Entertainment Company Ltd. (“Lastrada”). Lastrada controls copyrights to over 5,000 songs, including those by Beyoncé, 2Pac, Barbra Streisand, Jim Croce, Whitney Houston, Will Smith, Jay-Z, The Carpenters, and ‘N Sync. In addition to Ronson, Lastrada also names producer Jeff Bhasker, Sony Entertainment, Spotify, Universal Music Corp., and Apple, Inc., as defendants, among others. The suit is pending before the Hon. Judge Gregory H. Woods.
The megahit, “Uptown Funk,” was released in 2014 and won two Grammys in 2016, including Record of the Year. Later that year, in October 2016, Minneapolis band, Collage, filed a lawsuit accusing Ronson, and singer-songwriter Bruno Mars of copyright infringement, claiming the song was “an obvious, strikingly and/or substantially similar copy” of their 1983 single “Young Girls.” According to the court docket, the parties stipulated in June to the appointment of a mediator and to have the case resolved by mediation no later than August 2018. Now, Lastrada, who owns a 72 percent interest in the copyright of “More Bounce to the Ounce,” and alleges that it has owned a piece of it continuously since 1994, is asserting that “Uptown Funk” copies a three-note introductory talk-box melody doubled on a guitar, a talk-box vocalization of the word “doh,” and a “clap groove on the backbeat,” among other things. “There are no other songs, other than ‘More Bounce’ and ‘Uptown Funk,’ that feature this sequence and combination of musical elements,” the complaint asserts.
In 1980, Zapp released a self-titled album on Warner Bros. Records, which included the single “More Bounce to the Ounce.” The single reached the #1 spot on Billboard’s R&B charts and was ultimately certified in 1993 as “double platinum,” signifying sales in excess of two million copies. According to the complaint, the composition has been called “a funk masterpiece” by The New York Times and it has become “hugely influential” since its release in 1980. Lastrada alleges that Ronson and other defendants sampled the hit and have “candidly admitted” to Zapp’s “influence” on the creation of “Uptown Funk,” citing media interviews as support.
Lastrada seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop defendants from distributing and performing “Uptown Funk,” a court order demanding the destruction of all copies of the song, and actual and statutory damages, plus prejudgment interest, costs and attorneys’ fees. Listen to both songs here and judge for yourself.
