Men At Work vs. 'Kookaburra'
Vanilla Ice borrowed from Queen, the Verve sampled the Rolling Stones and Men At Work unknowingly took a passage from the 75-year-old Australian children's song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree." The band recorded "Down Under" in 1981, but no one thought the the flute riff sounded like the familiar melody until 2009, when an Australian television game show made the connection. Originally written by a schoolteacher named Marion Sinclair in early 1934, "Kookaburra" now legally belongs to Larrikin Music Publishing, which sued Men At Work members Colin Hay and Ron Strykert as well as several branches of Sony and EMI — and won. The lawsuit — which disputed just two bars of music — serves as a warning to future composers. Think you've written a new song? It's probably just an up-tempo version of "Row Row Row Your Boat."