Everyone gets a writing credit on Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk," it seems. In the wake of the Robin Thicke/Pharrell Willams "Blurred Lines" lawsuit, which awarded Marvin Gaye writing credits, Ronson's 14 week No. 1 hit has five new writers thanks to similarities between the Uptown Special track and The Gap Band's "Oops Upside Your Head."
The Gap Band's Lonnie Simmons, Ronnie Wilson, Charles Wilson, Robert Wilson and Rudolph Taylor have now been added to the writing credits of "Uptown Funk," Music Week reports. The old time funk group join Ronson, Mars, producer Jeff Bhasker, The Smeezingtons' Philip Lawrence and "All Gold Everything" songwriters Nicholaus Williams and Devon Gallaspy as writers of the track. (Trinidad James' songwriters are on the track due to the sample of "Don't believe me just watch.")
Why The Gap Band? Billboard reports the '70s group filed a legal claim between similarities between "Uptown Funk" and "Oops Upside Your Head." Indeed, there seem to be some similarities between the cadences of the lyrics "Uptown funk you up" and "Oops upside your head."
Listen below:
Could the new writing credits be tied to the now infamous "Blurred Lines" lawsuit? According to Danny Zook, Trindad James' manager and a published admitted yet.
"Everyone is being a little more cautious. Nobody wants to be involved in a lawsuit. Once a copyright dispute goes to a trial, [if a jury is used], it is subject to be decided by public opinion -- and no longer resolved based entirely on copyright law," he said.
