Idolator

Wait... doesn't her song also say "I wanna be your girlfriend?" Or am I not watching enough TRL?

Oh ha-- I also just saw that their biggest hit was their cover of "I Think We're Alone Now". Tiffany's all, "I had to pay for my Rubinoos song, you cheap little pink-haired whore."

What's sad (funny?) is that Chantal is most likely right in that Avril doesn't write anything, so she's getting sued for pretending to write something.

Big fan of the Rubinoo's, but isn't the "Hey (hey) You (you)" part just an homage to "Get Off of My Cloud"?

They all ripped off the Rolling Stones, so whatever.

Except "I Think We're Alone Now" wasn't a Rubinoos original! Richie Cordell wrote it for Tommy James & The Shondells.

"Arcade Queen" is just about due for a cover, I think.

So glad someone finally caught on...every time I've heard the Avril song, those voices in my head have been screaming, "Plagiarist! Plagiarist!"

@mike a: Oh I know, I said their cover of "I think we're alone now". But that just makes it double funny, my convoluted Tiffany tie-in not withstanding.

I really like Chantal's reaction when she found out there was a song on Avril's new album that was titled the same as the one Chantal gave her.

"Can you believe it was named the same thing? I know what you're thinking. 'Call the lawyers.' But no, that's not how I roll. I haven't heard the song, or if I have I won't admit it most likely because it's not the same one, but I'd rather just bitch about it to Performing Songwriter magazine."

I remember watching an interview with Vanilla Ice and him tapdancing pretty hard about how it WASN'T the baseline from UNDER PRESSURE. I guess this is pretty hard, but I'm amazed at the chutzpah plagiarists have. Like they're never going to be found out?

Oh, Dr. Luke, why have you betrayed us?

I recall reading a few years ago that Avril and Chantal (a fellow Canadian) were friends at the time, and that Avril even lived at Chantal's house in Los Angeles for a while, prior to Avril moving to that city.

@Maulleigh: They were two different songs. Ice Ice Baby went ding-ding-ding-da-da-ding ding. Da-ding-ding-ding-da-da-ding-ding. There was an extra ding. Or so he claimed.

@Maulleigh:

You see, theirs goes: duh duh duh dadadada, duh duh duh dadada.

And ours goes: ting ting ting tingatingting...ting-ting ting ting tingatingting.

That little bitty "ting". It's not the same.

It's not even like they changed the words much and plagarized the melody....they plagarized the WHOLE THING!!!!!!!!! Except for boyfriend vs. girlfriend. Still, the whole thing.

Royfromage and chromatic: Yeah, it's kind of odd that ol' Allen Klein didn't get sicced on both the Rubinoos and Avril. That greedy troll has succeeded in cadging royalties from other acts for even less so-called plagiarism.

zaky: Seriously? I mean, play the verses side-by-side -- I hear some mild interpolation, maybe, but nowhere near a wholesale ripoff. The Rubinoos' own lawyer concedes the whole song's not stolen. Honestly, I think they might have a case on the one line in the chorus (and I'd be curious to see a judge interpet it), but beyond that, they don't sound that similar to me.

Bottom line, I call foul, not on the Rubinoos or their lawyer but on some of the people piling on Lavigne - a case like this is a litmus test for how you feel about pop-leaning starlets, not the merits of the so-called theft. I mean, I love my sanctified classic rockers, but if Avril's a wholesale plagiarist, John Lennon's Chuck Berry-inspired "Come Together" looks like outright rape.

@dennisobell: The Wikipedia entry for "You Can't Catch Me" to which you link says that it and "Come Together" have (only) one line (of the lyrics, I assume) in common.

@Hyman Decent: That's my point - it's about as serious a ripoff as Avril's song is of the Rubinoos'.

My larger point is that when shit like this happens and the act in question is female and under 30, gatekeepers or rock authenticity are much faster to pounce than they would be for an esteemed rock god. (And no, I don't like Avril Lavigne better than John Lennon, just to preempt that canard.)

Stealing the first line of the first verse is one thing (and by the way, Lennon DID settle out of court, and had to cover "You Can't Catch Me" on one of his solo albums as part of the settlement), but stealing the main hook is a whole other thing.

What's the first thing you remember about the Rubinoos's song? "Hey! Hey! You! You! I wanna be your boyfriend!"

What's the first thing you remember about Avril's song? "Hey! Hey! You! You! I don't like your girlfriend!" or "I want to be your girlfriend!" (she says both in each chorus).

Wake me up when Avril goes all Angry Inch and releases a song called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend."

@dennisobell: Word.

I listened to the YouTube clips and indeed they do sound sorta similar. But they also both sound like a 1000 other power pop/punk songs. You know, songs pumped out by artists similar to those our recently departed captain was so eager to bring attention to. Is that vocal cadence cribbed from the Rubinoos? Likely. But there's only 12 tones to work with, and even fewer orginal ideas, so more than occasionally this shit happens, either intentionally or not.

One would hope said cribber would be classy enough to make up some Stevie Nicks (Sara anyone?) bullshit about paying homage to a great under-rated power punk band and kick 'em a share of the publishing royalties. If she doesn't, and argues otherwise (also likely) than she's, pardon me here, a douchebag. But it's not like she's alone in that and somehow worse than any of the other mostly male songwriters this has happened to. Someone should create a database of all the plagiarism claims & lawsuits.

Is she the sole "songwriter" on this? Sounds like it was written *by* Pro-Tools. Anyway, I can understand why people hate her. I think she's a decent singer who craves attention. And I've now thought way too much about this. I don't even like either song.

I refuse to give a shit about this whole thing unless someone produces a Rubinoos clip of their song's chorus in Mandarin.

    That is what we call "hoping for a settlement." I've heard both tunes, and there isn't that much similarity. If Lavigne's camp wants to fight it, the Rubinoos' catalog will probably be public domain by the time the courts settle anything...

And to think I loved her for her originality.

yea, she plagiarized. Also, I thought that the people calling Toni Basil were insane, but I went back and looked. It does have the same drum line. But, I've heard that drum line elsewhere too. If she wants to go for it, I most certainly will not stop her, especially if it will eliminate the scourge of pop punk.