Canadian singer Avril Lavigne. (Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images)
On July 4, Avril Lavigne was named in a lawsuit by members of a defunct American band called the Rubinoos, who felt the chorus to Girlfriend, her recent smash hit:
“Hey hey / You you / I don’t like your girlfriend / Hey hey / you you / I think you need a new one” (Girlfriend)
sounded suspiciously similar to their 1979 single:
“Hey, you, I wanna be your boyfriend / trying to say I wanna be your number one / Hey, you, I wanna be your boyfriend / Gonna make you love me before I’m done” (The Rubinoos, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend).
The dust-up reminded me that the Rubinoos song also has a kinship with:
“Hey, little girl / I wanna be your boyfriend / Sweet little girl / I wanna be your boyfriend” (Ramones, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, 1980).
And hey, remember the flap in the late ’80s surrounding:
“I said hey (hey!) / You (you!) / Get into my car” (Billy Ocean, Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car, 1988)
which some people thought sounded like:
“Hey, you, get off of my cloud” (Rolling Stones, Get Off My Cloud, 1965)
which was echoed in:
“Hey you / Sha-la-la-la / Hey you / Sha-la-la-la” (Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Hey You, 1975)
which made about as much sense as:
“Na na na na-na-na nah / Na-na-na nah / Hey Jude” (The Beatles, Hey Jude, 1968)
which probably, in some small way, inspired:
“I say hey-ey-ey / Hey-ey-ey / I said hey / What’s going on?” (Four Non-Blondes, What’s Up, 1993).
At any rate, let us remember these wise words:
“Hey, hey, my, my / rock and roll will never die” (Neil Young, Hey, Hey, My, My (Out of the Blue), 1979),
though this lyric expresses the sentiment much better:
“Gabba gabba hey!” (Ramones, Pinhead, 1977).
Andre Mayer writes about the arts for CBCnews.ca/Arts.
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