Coldplay have refuted suggestions that they have plagiarised a house track from the seventies on new single Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall, claiming they have paid the songwriters in question and credited them as among the song’s composers.
The Guardian reports that Chris Martin and his band have used a section from the 1990 dance hit Ritmo de la Noche by Mystic, which itself was based on a song called I Go To Rio that came out in 1976. The songwriters in question for that are Peter Allen and Adrienne Anderson. Coldplay have said they have paid the pair for permission to use their song, after the blogosphere began pointing out the similarities between Ritmo de la Noche and Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall.
A spokesperson for Coldplay said, “Allen and Anderson are credited as writers on Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall. Chris was inspired to write the song after watching the film Biutiful by Alejandro González Iñárritu. In the film, there is a nightclub scene in which a track [Ritmo de la Noche] is playing in the background, based on I Go to Rio.”
I Go To Rio was actually a success in Australia, and has been covered by Peggy Lee, Claude Francois and the Muppets.
As the Guardian points out, this is not the first time Coldplay have been embroiled in such a row, with guitarist Joe Satriani accusing the band of plagiarising his track If I Could Fly on their Viva La Vida. That case was settled out of court after Coldplay said the similarities were ‘entirely coincidental’, while they have also been accused of ripping off Cat Stevens as well as Dan Gallagher for their music video to Strawberry Swing. Neither of those cases went to court.
In the mean time, frontman Martin caused a mild stir in London when he took to the underground with wife Gwyneth Paltrow as the pair journeyed to a secret gig from the band.
Coldplay are about to play a number of European festivals during June and July, before of course heading to Australia to play at Splendour in the Grass.
