10 Rock Songs That Ripped Off Other Songs
8. John Lennon's Chuck Berry Impression - Come Together
After months of trying to get back to their roots, the Beatles decided to scrap the idea of a traditional album and went their separate ways. Instead of just folding the band, the Fab Four came back together and decided to give their fans one final hurrah before going off on their own.
Out of all the great tracks on Abbey Road, "Come Together" really gets the ball rolling with John Lennon at the funkiest he has ever been. Though this swampy type of groove stood out as strange for the time, the music publishers had a few questions to ask Lennon about the opening verse.
Before the song was brought down in tempo, the original first line of "Here come old flattop" was something Lennon had lifted from the Chuck Berry hit "You Can't Catch Me." Determined to make a profit off the biggest band in the world, Berry's attorneys demanded that they be given credit for the song, with Lennon forced to pay a hefty amount to hang on to his tune. After going through the courts well after the band's breakup, Lennon eventually settled the lawsuit by donating the profits from his covers album Rock and Roll to the publishers. The songs may have had the same origins, but the tone that each of them have are miles apart.