Alicia Keys Sued Over Her Song "Girl On Fire"
Posted by Joseph Lee on 12.18.2012
It sounds too similar to something else...
Showbiz 411 reports that Alicia Keys is being sued by Earl Shuman, who co-wrote the song "Hey There Lonely Girl" with Leon Carr. He is suing for copyright infringement due to the fact that Keys uses two lines from the chorus of "Lonely Girl" in "Girl on Fire". This was originally brought to his attention by Showbiz 411, and he later contacted them to inform that he was still alive.
The song was originally performed by Eddie Holman in 1970 (after first being recorded by Ruby and the Romantics in 1963) and is still heard on oldies stations. Shuman is currently 89 years old and living in Manhattan. He said that while he likes the song, he wants to paid for the sampling of his own work. Shuman still writes music and is very acting. He's currently working on a song with Mcihael Feinstein. He has worked on several movie themes and hit songs by Patti Page in the 1950s. He has 317 credits on the ASCAP database. In 1953, one of his first hits was "Seven Lonely Days" by Georgia Gibbs. Shuman and Carr also wrote the 1964 Broadway musical of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which is being made into a 2013 film.
Shuman said this happened before with the same song, as both Anita Baker and the Beastie Boys sampled it. However, both artists paid for it. Shuman said: "We worked it out, got credit.
While the song does give credit to Billy Squiers' "The Big Beat", Shuman's is not credited. The chorus uses the lines "she's a lonely girl/in a lonely world" from the song.
