Ed Sheeran is being sued for $100 million for ‘ripping off parts of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On for his hit Thinking Out Loud’.
According to legal documents filed in New York, the Grammy-winning musician’s 2014 track copies the ‘melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping’ of Gaye’s classic 1973 song.
The claim of the track being a ‘carbon copy’ has been brought by a company called Structured Asset Sales (SAS), which owns part of the copyright of Let’s Get It On.
‘Sued’: TMZ has claimed that Ed Sheeran is reportedly being sued $100 Million for ‘stealing’ musical elements of Marvin Gaye’s classic Let’s Get It On for his song Thinking Out Loud
SAS bought one third of the copyright the death of Ed Townsend – who penned the track alongside Gaye – in 2003.
Sheeran, 27, was previously hit with a copyright suit in 2016 by Townsend’s family, who accused the star of ‘stealing’ musical elements for Thinking Out Loud.
MailOnline has contacted representatives for Ed Sheeran for comment.
Thinking Out Loud has turned into a wedding favourite with more than a billion plays on YouTube and the first song to hit 500 million streams on Spotify.
It is a hit track on his album X, which has sold more than 15 million copies.
‘Carbon copy’: According to the publication, a company called Structured Asset Sales, who bought one third of the copyright after co-writer Ed Townsend’s death in 2003, has filed a lawsuit claiming it is a ‘carbon copy’ (Marvin pictured in 1980)
Hit song: Thinking Out Loud has turned into a wedding favourite with more than a billion plays on YouTube and the first song to hit 500 million streams on Spotify
It was also nominated for a Grammy for Song Of The Year in 2015.
Other defendants listed in the claim include Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the Atlantic record label and Amy Padge, Sheeran’s co-writer on the song.
SAS is owned by David Pullman, the creator of the so-called Bowie Bonds, which saw David Bowie sell off bonds for $55 million backed by royalties from his catalogue.
Gaye was shot dead by his father in 1984 at the age of 44.
This is the fifth time Sheeran has been accused of copying songs from other artists.
Last year, Real Housewives Of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss was given a writing credit on Sheeran’s Shape of You, when the US copyright website ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) amended its listing for the chart topping song after countless listeners pointed out the similarities between it and TLC’s 1999 hit No Scrubs.
Fifth time: This is the fifth time Ed has been accused of copying songs from other artists (pictured at Glastonbury Festival in 2017)
In 2016 Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard – who wrote X Factor star Matt Cardle’s 2012 song Amazing – made a similar claim, suing him for $20million over Sheeran’s song, Photograph.
While more recently Sheeran, who recorded and co-wrote The Rest Of Our Life with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, was reportedly sued for $5 million for their hit.
Australians Sean Carey and Beau Golden alleged that the song is ‘blatantly copied’ from one they wrote in 2014 called When I Found You.
Just earlier this year, Gaye’s family were awarded $5.3 million after a split decision from a three-judge panel, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who said Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ 2013 Blurred Lines song is illegally copied from the late soul singer’s Got to Give it Up.
Just earlier this year, Marvin Gaye’s family were awarded $5.3 million after a split decision from a three-judge panel, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who said Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ 2013 Blurred Lines song is illegally copied from the late singer’s Got to Give it Up (Robin pictured performing the hit with Miley Cyrus in 2013)
Court case: Pharrell Williams and his wife Helen Lasichanh pictured outside the Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles, California, in March