1. John Fogerty Gets Sued For Copying His Own Work
In an unprecedented act of dickery, Fogerty wound up being sued for writing a song that sounded too similar to a song that he'd written previously. It was the first case of self-plagiarism that had ever been taken to the federal court. Listening to Fogerty's 1985 "The Old Man Down the Road," it's easy to hear the similarities to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through the Jungle," released in 1970. But hey, the guy was the lead singer of CCR and wrote both songs, so what's the big deal? Right? ...RIGHT?? Well, due to some bad blood between Fogerty and his former record company (which owned the rights to "Run Through the Jungle"), he was technically liable for infringing on his own work. If that sounds stupid and unreasonable, that's because it is. Unfortunately, the whole thing was settled out of court, so we don't know how much Fogerty had to pay for the audacity of sounding too much like himself. Even more unfortunately, the ridicule this lawsuit received in the media also set a precedent that has allowed Nickelback to put out the tiniest variations of the same song for more than a decade without anyone being entitled to compensation.