4. Michael Jackson's "Black or White" vs. John Cougar Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good"
When I first heard "Black or White" in the early '90s, I had just tuned my radio as I was getting ready to go to school in the morning. It happened to be near the intro of the song, and all I heard was the main guitar riff. I naturally assumed someone remade John Mellancamp's "Hurts So Good." But then Michael Jackson started singing, and all the words were wrong. I couldn't believe it. Jackson was a musical genius and didn't need to steal songs to gain fame, but the guitar riff is clearly taken from "Hurts So Good," even if it was an accidental rip-off. The tempo and key might be slightly different, but note for note, it's the same exact line. Play those guitar parts next to each other, and you really won't be able to tell the difference. This would normally be somewhat forgivable, but Jackson's entire song is based off this one riff. I waited for Mellencamp to immediately take to the airwaves to defend his song and claim copyright infringement, but I kept waiting, and the lawsuit never came. Was the eerie similarity lost on Mellencamp? Maybe he just didn't hear the song? Impossible. It was playing nonstop on the radio at the time, as this was just before Jackson's child-molestation scandal when his popularity and influence began ebbing.Plagiarism or not, Jackson still had an unbelievable track record and a career that any musician would die to emulate, but, for me anyway, "Black and White" will remain, no pun intended, the one black stain on his legacy. This, and that pesky molestation trial.