Avril Lavigne has reached an “undisclosed settlement” with the ’70s powerpop band the Rubinoos, who sued her over allegations that she was plagiarizing their song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” in the chorus of her inescapable 2007 hit “Girlfriend.” More »
Avril Lavigne kicked off a obviously slow music news weekend by posting an open letter (addressed to the closest people in her life: “Media, Friends, and Fans”) to her Web site on Friday. While Avril’s “news” page is generally dedicated to hot, while somewhat impersonal, updates like “Girlfriend Remix fan-video update!” or “The Best Damn Thing Deluxe Edition (w/new bonus tracks) now available at iTunes!,” this piece of news read just like a page torn from Avril’s fifth-period biology notebook. You know, the one with “I [Heart] Deryck 4-Ever” on it.
Looks like someone finally played Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” for members of the power-pop group The Rubinoos, who have filed a copyright-infringement suit against the singer for allegedly (cough) ripping off their song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”:
A pair of U.S. songwriters allege her contagious single sounds suspiciously like a song called “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” released by the Rubinoos in 1979.
The American song features the upbeat chorus: “Hey, hey, you, you, I wanna be your boyfriend,” much like Lavigne’s boppy refrain, which declares: “Hey, hey, you, you, I don’t like your girlfriend.”
Welcome to another edition of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, in which we try to win your hearts and minds with a forgotten song that deserved a better life. More »