[Newspaper: It's my party and I'll run if I want to] Part: 4 of 6
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M
E
D
Good intentions
By Spencer MichlinH ave you heard the TV and radio
jingle for Southwestern Bell's
"You've Got Great Connec-
tions" advertising campaign?
You should have; the company
is spending millions to play it
for you. Does it sound familiar? I think there's
a reason.
I believe that the catchy, bluesy tune the phone
company calls "Great Connections" sounds un-
commonly like country/pop star Lyle Lovett sing-
ing new lyrics to his song "Good Intentions."
Lovett's people apparently agree; they've
reportedly written to ask that the spot be discon-
tinued. The company and its advertising agen-
cy, D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles/St. Louis
fervently deny any wrongdoing.
Some background is necessary. "Original
music" is easy to define: it no longer exists, at
least in the sense of unique melodies based on
the Western 12-tone scale. Every available com-
bination of notes was used up long ago, and the
U.S. Copyright Office now only issues copyrights
for melodies combined with titles and lyrics.
These days, when a composer, advertiser, or
agency wishes to establish ownership of a tune,
a musicologist is brought in to certify its
predecessor in the public domain, not its
originality. That is, if your eight bars are pretty
much identical to eight bars of say, Chopin, you
have merely used a melody that's been around
long enough to be legally yours for the taking.
Musicologists have big libraries, phenomenal
memories, and a love of the game, and they
almost never fail.
When judge and jury consider plagiarism, they
look of course for similarities in the songs, but
since virtually every melody is in the public do-
main, a couple of other elements must also be
present. The plaintiff in such a suit must prove
"access" and "intent."
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Chrhsb rign aIn the case of a song written, recorded, and
publicly performed by a popular artist, access
(did the defendant ever hear it?) can reasonably
be inferred. Intent (did the defendant deliberately
rip it off?) is far more nettlesome.
Now for the related issue of "sound-alikes."
This is the unauthorized imitation of a per-
former's voice in advertising and was the
substance of Bette Midler's 1989 California
courtroom victory in which the performer won
a $400,000 judgment from Lincoln-Mercury and
its agency, Young & Rubicam. The court ruled
that, having been spurned by Midler when they
asked her to recreate her performance of the song
"Do You Wanna Dance?," advertiser and agen-
cy violated her rights by hiring a former Bette
'backup singer to record the song in the Midler
manner. The fact that the star had been ap-
proached to do the commercial was a significant
part of the Midler case, helping establish intent
to imitate her voice on the part of agency and
advertiser.
Okay. Back to "Good Intentions" and "Great
Connections." All parties to the matter agree that,
unlike Midler, Lovett was never contacted while
the commercial was being developed. "The first
we heard about it," says Lovett's publisher Beau
Goldsen, "was when Lyle's friends began call-
ing him to say they had heard 'his' phone com-
pany jingle, which sounded a lot like 'Good In-
tentions.' What makes Lyle mad-apart from the
fact that he's consistently turned down every
commercial he's been offered so far-is that he's
receiving no recognition for the use of his work."
Nor is he receiving any money. According to
Goldsen, Lovett might or might not be willing
to record a commercial someday, "but the choice
would have to be up to him." Presumably the pay-
ment would be up to the standards of a hot star
still on the rise.
Goldsen adds that a letter demanding discon-i I ) 1 ) 1/111/1/ / /1]
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It's obvious that "access" was present in this
case, but was "intent?" I say not exactly, although
a judge may ultimately disagree. I think Tom
Townsend is telling the truth and believe his cam-
paign fell prey to a kind of unspoken conspiracy
that plagues advertising.
At its heart and for very good reasons adver-
tising is derivative shorthand created in col-
laboration. The agency's official list of the
"Southwestern Bell Corporation 'Connections'
Production Team" contains the names of 21 in-
dividuals and five companies. These people can
generally be assumed to be neither stupid nor
crooked. Each wanted a great and unique cam-
paign. No one wanted trouble.
What happened? Typically, it goes something
like this:
The lyricist writes a terrific lyric and suggests
music "in the style" of Lyle Lovett and others-
perfectly permissible. Without realizing it, he
writes to the meter of a specific Lovett tune in
the back of his mind-happens all the time. The
reason advertisers use music in the first place
is the same reason it's so easy to steal by acci-
dent; music gets into your subconscious and stays
there.
What happens next is that a group of highly
talented people, each charged with a small piece
of the overall project, takes over. That's when
the real trouble begins. The song takes on a life
of its own.
Skilled composers, arrangers, producers, and
musicians ply their crafts all too well, each
following the path of least resistance, which in
this case seems to have been the path of
"Lyleness." Borrow a guitar lick here, a vocal
turn there-each harmless in itself-and when
all the parts are assembled, the result sounds just
like Lyle. No one and everyone is to blame.
At some point after it's too late, the similarity
becomes apparent, and the corporate defense
system goes on full alert. Agency and client begin
placing calls to musicologists. Then they get their
stories straight, and pray no one will notice. No
one ever does until they put it on TV.
But like the song says, they had good inten-
tions.utinuation of the spot was sent to the phone com-
pany by Lovett's agent/attorney, Ken Levitan of
Nashville. Levitan refused to comment on the
matter.
Back in St. Louis, Scott Perkins, manager of
corporate advertising for Southwestern Bell, not
only denied receiving such a letter, but said he'd
never heard of Lyle Lovett. Marty Berg, direc-
tor of corporate communications and Perkins'
boss, denied seeing the Levitan letter or being
aware of any "dispute" about the music, then
added that all "questions" about the music's
origins have been put to rest by traditional means.
"We've had it ["Great Connections"] reviewed
by several musicologists," he says.
Precautions have been taken at the agency as
well. An initial inquiry to account supervisor
William Miller, which made no mention of
Lovett, yielded a refusal to discuss authorship
of the music. He gave the names of the copy-
writer who penned the clever lyrics and of the
music house and singer who recorded the ex-
cellent tracks, but predicted that any questions
on the subject would be directed back to him.
Under normal circumstances, this would be an
unusual procedure for an advertising agency. In
a later call, Miller denied knowledge of a letter
from Levitan.
After I asked about the letter, Miller asked the
lyricist, Tom Townsend, to speak to me. Town-
send iradily admitted familiarity with both singer
and song. "Lovett was one of a handful of art-
ists with a disarming style of talk/sing rhythm
and blues," he said. "Lovett is one and Paul
Simon is one and Randy Newman is another I
like a lot. I'm very familiar with his stuff, but
I wouldn't say he was in my mind any more than
the others." Similarly, at the recording session,
"Lyle's name was brought up to the singer, but
so were a bunch of other names including that
of Martin Mull."+
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Dallas Observer. [Newspaper: It's my party and I'll run if I want to], clipping, February 22, 1990; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc915842/m1/4/: accessed June 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.