Funny or Die won’t let Tom Petty take good news without a jab.
Last week, the world learned that Sam Smith would pay Petty royalties from his song “Stay with Me” due to its musical similarities to Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” The folks over at Funny Or Die found the development quite interesting, considering the numerous instances of musical similarities among pop songs. Cue the above video, which draws attention to the resemblance some of Petty’s songs bear to earlier ones from other artists.
Petty still comes out on top in this whole scenario — lots of money trumps not being made fun of on the Internet — but it does raise some interesting points about musical ownership.