Ed Sheeran stands trial in New York over accusations that he copied Marvin Gaye song 'Let's get it On'

Ed Sheeran has taken the stand in a New York trial where he has been accused of copying the classic Marvin Gaye song ‘Let’s Get It On’ through his ‘Thinking Out Loud’ track. 

The family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote 'Let's Get It On' with Marvin Gaye, are suing the British singer and his music label for copyright infringement. The heirs claim that the similarities between the songs means that Ed owes them some of the profits he made from his hit 2014 single. 

According to Sky News the prosecuting Lawyer Keisha Rice questioned the singer about a previous song ‘Take it Back’ which contain the lyrics ‘plagiarism is hidden.” 

Ed replied “Those are my lyrics, yep,” then asked “can I give some context to them?” To which she explained if she wanted more context she would ask for it. 

The singer was also questioned about a video clip where he performed a medley of the the songs together. But the singer explained that he sometimes "mashes up" songs with similar chords together at his gigs.

Ed Sheeran Vs Sami Switch

It’s not the first time the global superstar has been accused of copyright infringement. In 2022 Sami Chokri, a.k.a Sami Switch alleged that Ed’s 2017 song ‘Shape of You' was a copy of his 2015 song ‘Oh Why’. Ed won the case and court findings that he “neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied.”

Marvin Gaye Estate Vs Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams

The Marvin Gaye Estate has also been in court before accusing Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams 'Blurred Lines’ copying Marvin’s ‘Got to Keep it Up’. After a long battle the court ordered Robin, Pharrell and rapper T/.I who featured on the hit to pay the estate $5 million. 

Queen and David Bowie Vs Vanilla Ice

Ice Ice Baby was a huge hit in the '90s and probably the most remembered rap intro by all '90s babies. But if the tune sounded familiar that's because it was sampled from the Queen and David Bowie track ‘Under Pressure.’ The court ruled in favour of Queen and David and both were added to the writing credits of the song. 

The Rolling Stones Vs The Verve 

Another notable 90s track was ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by the indie band The Verve. Part of the song was originally sampled from the orchestral version of the hit ‘The Last Time’. It was all official but the Rolling Stones members claimed The Verve had used more of the sample than what was agreed. 

The court ruled in favour of the Stones but in a bizarre turn of events Mick Jagger and Keith Richards signed over all the publishing rights for Bittersweet Symphony to the Verve’s lead singer Richard Ashcroft in 2019.