Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Hey, That's My Song!

Las wants his baby back.
Las wants his baby back.

If you saw the recent Glee episode with Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” covered as a slow and somber ballad (and charting this week in the Billboard’s Hot 100), singer/songwriter Greg Laswell thinks they got the idea from his own four-year-old single, heard in 2007 on the TV show Damages and in 2009 on the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie soundtrack. “Finn, one of the main characters on the show [Glee], performed an exact note-for-note copy of my sad-Sam cover,” says the part-time San Diegan. “There was no public nod or recognition for my version.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Whenever I play for audiences that have never heard of me before, this is the one song above all others that allows them to say to themselves, Oh, I know this guy. It’s that song for me. I’m perfectly aware that it is a cover, but I deconstructed it beyond recognition, and it’s always been my little baby.”

When Laswell tweeted his feelings about the TV rendition, he says, “The people over at Glee were upset about my calling them out.... Their official response to my label is that they want to ‘move on.’ I just feel like I’ve been stolen from, and, well, for lack of a cooler way to put it, I’ve been bummed about it all week. They could have even changed a note or two and, honestly, that would have given me enough to move on from it.”

In a similar case, local singer/songwriter Scott Wilson says, “An L.A. group called Fog and Smog featuring DJ Spider seems to have had the same idea for a song called ‘Yoga Girl,’ five months after the release of my own song by that name.”

Like Laswell, Wilson took to Twitter, contacting DJ Spider directly to ask if the group knew about his own “Yoga Girl.” “No, didn’t realize,” tweeted Spider. “Little different vibe tho. Ours is a comedy song ha-ha.”

Wilson notes, “Theirs starts pretty much the same, with a tambura sample. It’s a pretty common Indian instrument. Mine starts with ‘Yoga girl,’ and theirs with ‘Hey, yoga girl.’ As far as the concept goes, it’s very similar, isn’t it? I look at it as a sequel to my song, not a copy. Mine is like an internal dialogue, and theirs is like real-world exaggerated dialogue. As if I was considering trying to hit on the yoga girl, and they actually did.”

“I sent them a link to my blog and did not hear back, so they’re either contacting their lawyers or maybe they think they’ve picked up a crackpot.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Next Article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Las wants his baby back.
Las wants his baby back.

If you saw the recent Glee episode with Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” covered as a slow and somber ballad (and charting this week in the Billboard’s Hot 100), singer/songwriter Greg Laswell thinks they got the idea from his own four-year-old single, heard in 2007 on the TV show Damages and in 2009 on the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie soundtrack. “Finn, one of the main characters on the show [Glee], performed an exact note-for-note copy of my sad-Sam cover,” says the part-time San Diegan. “There was no public nod or recognition for my version.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Whenever I play for audiences that have never heard of me before, this is the one song above all others that allows them to say to themselves, Oh, I know this guy. It’s that song for me. I’m perfectly aware that it is a cover, but I deconstructed it beyond recognition, and it’s always been my little baby.”

When Laswell tweeted his feelings about the TV rendition, he says, “The people over at Glee were upset about my calling them out.... Their official response to my label is that they want to ‘move on.’ I just feel like I’ve been stolen from, and, well, for lack of a cooler way to put it, I’ve been bummed about it all week. They could have even changed a note or two and, honestly, that would have given me enough to move on from it.”

In a similar case, local singer/songwriter Scott Wilson says, “An L.A. group called Fog and Smog featuring DJ Spider seems to have had the same idea for a song called ‘Yoga Girl,’ five months after the release of my own song by that name.”

Like Laswell, Wilson took to Twitter, contacting DJ Spider directly to ask if the group knew about his own “Yoga Girl.” “No, didn’t realize,” tweeted Spider. “Little different vibe tho. Ours is a comedy song ha-ha.”

Wilson notes, “Theirs starts pretty much the same, with a tambura sample. It’s a pretty common Indian instrument. Mine starts with ‘Yoga girl,’ and theirs with ‘Hey, yoga girl.’ As far as the concept goes, it’s very similar, isn’t it? I look at it as a sequel to my song, not a copy. Mine is like an internal dialogue, and theirs is like real-world exaggerated dialogue. As if I was considering trying to hit on the yoga girl, and they actually did.”

“I sent them a link to my blog and did not hear back, so they’re either contacting their lawyers or maybe they think they’ve picked up a crackpot.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.