THE DOORS’ "HELLO I LOVE YOU": PLAGIARISM AGAINST THE KINKS?

The Doors’ song "Hello I Love You" was released in June 1968 as the second single from the LP "Waiting For The Sun" (released in July of the same year).

The B-side was "Love Street", and the resulting 45 rpm went to the top of the US charts (15th in the UK).

The success of The Doors' song attracted the attention of the management of The Kinks, an excellent English band who, after a start in Rhythm’n’Blues and garage rock, were playing excellent pop rock at the time.

It was in the early stages of The Kinks's career, in October 1964, that "All Day And All Of The Night", a garage-rock song was released (seventh in the United States and second in England).

According to The Kinks' lawyers, "Hello I Love You" copied "All Day And All Of The Night" and they successfully demanded that The Doors pay the British group the royalties due.

The affair ended in a settlement that did not ruin the California quartet's reputation or attract much media attention.

Let us take a closer look and see if this plagiarism can really be called that.

If you listen to "All Day And All of The Night" carefully, you will notice that it consists of three parts (verse with the main riff - bridge - chorus), which are repeated several times and enriched by an electric guitar solo.

On the other hand, "Hello I Love You" is composed of dissimilar elements placed in a different order (chorus - verse - chorus - verse - bridge - coda).

As you can see, the two structures are completely different. So, what does this plagiarism consist of?

The only similar musical elements are the verse and guitar riff of The Kinks’ song (for example listen from min. 0.03 to min. 0.19) and the vocal part of the chorus of "Hello I Love You" (for example listen from min. 0.09 to min. 0.24).

These are the two most important parts of the respective songs, the parts that most characterize the respective songs.

It might be enough to declare plagiarism, and it actually was enough, but it is necessary to note that there are many tunes that take elements, even central ones, from other works without incurring any penalty. How is this possible?

Probably the real reason for the lawsuit was not the musical plagiarism itself (which even the Doors themselves had not noticed), but rather the fact that the song had become extremely famous in the United States.

Moreover, other plagiarism lawsuits have been successful only in extreme circumstances, which our case certainly does not fall into.

A historical example of plagiarism can be found in the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Usa" (spring 1963), which had to cite Chuck Berry as sole author because the song was virtually identical to Berry's own "Sweet Little Sixteen" (a fine rock'n'roll song from 1958).

This has nothing to do with a riff being turned into a sung part of a chorus, as happened in the "The Kinks vs. The Doors" case.

Given the above elements, one suspicion arises: the prospect of rich royalties from a chart-topping single, not sincere musical pride, was probably the motivation that convinced The Kinks' record company to file a lawsuit.

The legal outcome of the case sanctions plagiarism on the part of The Doors, but the doubt remains that this is just one of those cases in which a limited similarity between parts of two different songs has been exaggerated and taken for granted.

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