Radiohead ‘suing Lana Del Rey’ over song’s similarity to ‘Creep’

‘Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court,’ singer tweets

Lana Del Rey. Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Lana Del Rey. Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

Radiohead are suing Lana Del Rey over her song Get Free, which they say bears similarity to their 1993 breakthrough hit Creep.

Del Rey tweeted: “It’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100 per cent of the publishing – I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.”

As it stands, only Del Rey, along with co-writers Kieron Menzies and Rick Nowels, are credited on the track, taken from her album Lust for Life which topped the charts in the US and UK on its release in July 2017.

Radiohead have not yet commented on the lawsuit.

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Radiohead were themselves previously sued over the song by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, who claimed it bore resemblance to their song for the Hollies, The Air That I Breathe – the pair were added to the song's credits and share royalties with the band.

Del Rey is the latest in a string of high-profile artists to be accused of copying. Ed Sheeran settled out of court with a pair of songwriters after similarities were found between his song Photograph and the Matt Cardle song Amazing, and also retrospectively added the writers of TLC's No Scrubs to the credits of his enormous hit Shape of You.

Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were added to the credits for Sam Smith's Stay With Me in 2014, while in 2015, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were successfully sued by Marvin Gaye's estate for $7.4 million, after it was found that their Blurred Lines plagiarised Gaye's track Got to Give It Up. –Guardian