Andrew Lloyd Webber - Genius or Plagiarist?

[jazztom86]

it's for sure copied, but the question is if it was intentional. You know, as a musician it happened to me also, to write some music, and later you recognize "oh shit, it sound like....". It's because everything we hear influences us. And we don't notice. Our brain sucks up everything we hear, also to a subconscious level. So it happens that you think you found a great melody, and only months or even years later you notice "oooops......" then it's to late.

[TangerineWizard123]

Thief

[freddiebarry93]

its funny because its in the same exact key as Echoes, too...

[JAyala7293]

Cats and Jesus Christ Superstar are both Webber's musicals so it doesn't matter if he plagiarizes his own work, and yes, every musician is influenced by other songs, that's how more music is created, the only one that bothers me is Echoes by Pink Floyd, that is ridiculously close to be coincidence

[broadwaybabi91]

I think the Rosemary and JCSS are probably coincidental but... ugh. the rest are too close.

[Lovett19991]

I'm suprised Andrew copied so much. Still I like his music ,and The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical ever !!

[MiuViuMiuVii]

speaking about Memory from Cats - listen to Imants Kalnins "Vini dejoja vienu vasaru" which was written in 1971 - from 1:22 there is totally copy-paste from his work!

[miiwiiplay]

I think it's coincidence

[Methrt3]

The Beatles did it, Led Zepplin did it, but they lifted from mostly obscure sources. Lloyd Webber did it and I'm surprised that he could "borrow" from a major act like Pink Floyd and a well known composer like Mendelssohn and expect none to cry foul.

[MsErasedCitizen2]

holy shit and I thought it was only Echoes that he'd stolen!

fuck ya Andrew Floyd Webber

[ThePhantom135]

Wow, this really hurts me. Phantom of the Opera was the first show i ever saw and was got me into musical theatre. but listening to the comparisons to Puccini's aria and "Echoes" makes me reconsider how highly I place POTO. This is sad.

[AsSomedayItMayHappen]

You know in music sometimes there's nothing you can do if there are similarities between your music and the music that you hear that influences you on a subconscious level. But these examples clearly illustrate that there was blatant and overt plagiarism on the part of Lloyd Webber.

[Alucard1944]

Hey, I've looked everywhere for that Ray Repp song, Till You. Does anyone know where to find it? Btw, I think he's a genius.

[MarioAlCarr]

Plageando y tirando party el señor!

[Dangles1989]

The first example is only like 4 notes. But all the others seem quite striking, particular the Pink Floyd and the Mendelssohn.

[001account]

Genius or Plagiarist? Genius Plagiarist!

[lornaross1984]

Plagarism!

[lornaross1984]

Plagiarism! Thieving scoundrel. Those royalties should be going to someone else!

[BrandonTJones69]

PLAGIARIST

[MyCoffeeLove]

The Phantom of the Opera is a great musical, but it was not written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.......

[linardslinardslinard]

watch?v=GdN2JcHwars



[linardslinardslinard]

the more precise copy for chorus at cats comes from latvian pop song "vini dejoja vienu vasaru" that was written by Imants Kalnins at 1967 (more than 10 years before cats), you can hear it hear watch?v=GdN2JcHwars (the chorus starts at 1:22 and it has the same singing melody and the precise same arangement)

[howarda376]

The answer's quite easy: plagiarist.

[MasterAnemos]

I think I'll just go cry in a corner somewhere and eat rats that happen to come by and infest my house....Nah, just kidding!

It is fairly obvious that Lloyd Webber is a plagiarist, but it doesn't mean that he's a horrible composer. He recognized that it was good music. Some composers don't even do that. Or, it could be that it was a major coincidence in most of these places. Except Puccini. Puccini was obviously taken from.

[0SierraMaestra0]

Now I know why I liked Phantom so much as a wee urchin, because it was actually Roger Waters' music which became my favorite in late child and early adulthood. And still is. If you want to compose good music--screw it--you can steal from Waters.

[phangirlnumber1]

sallys song-the nightmare before christmas & beneath a moonless sky-love never (should!)dies.

[katiehongolarox]

that pink floyd one is definetly the same song!!!

[littlelottesangel]

i just lost all respect for Andrew Lloyd Webber! I aspired to be like him and to create glorious music! But now this? I dont know what to do this is an OUTRAGE! fuck you Mr. Webber

[timesage61889]

I just want to put out that Webber grew up around all kinds of music so it is very possible for songs to sound a like. There are definitely some ones that are way beyond coincidence, but the growing up around music is something to keep in mind.

[VidarHD]

have I been so naive all these years? I had heard about Webber 'being inspired by' several times before, but this clip is quite an eyeopener. This is well, shocking!

[johnnydeppzls]

OMG! I never realised that. You can clearly see the similarities in Pink floyd. Actually, most of them. So unfair. It's riduculus

[Namllib]

Ravel (1928), Puccinni (1907) and Mendelsohn (1845) are probably in the "public domain" so stealing them is allowable under U.S. copyright laws. Pink Floyd should sue, but they probably don't have enough money to go up against him and his army of lawyers. The Rey Repp song sounds extremely similar. don't hear the Rosemary/Jesus Christ similarity.

[g00nther]

Echoes yes

Puccini yes

Others, not in my opinion.

Giving the limitations of the musical scale, inadvertent similarities are going to happen.

[ppgppgppgppg]

The world is being divided equally between the greatest musicians who can't pay their rent and Andrew Lloyd Webber

[littleDMN]

This did NOT just ruin my childhood love of Andrew Lloyd Webber's compositions...

[irishguy200007]

What about the song "McArthur Park"

[carodani]

great collection!!!! some of these are really spot on... I have a video of some kind of tribute from Depeche Mode to the Jesus Christ Superstar here

It's the opposite but it defines well how nothing is really ever new.... maybe ;)

[manifestgtr]

jesus...I used to write off the echoes/poto similarity...it's funny, I actually saw phantom first then heard echoes years later and thought wow this sounds really familiar...but I mean come on...both songs not only use the EXACT same notes (literally the same notes, not just the same notes relative to eachother) but they're at almost the exact same tempo...hearing them back to back really changes my mind on that one...the music of the night one bums me out too...that's such a beautiful song

[MrWagnerlover]

I think that in writing music there can be coicidences where it sounds like other songs. That's all I'm saying.

[webeffect]

@MrWagnerlover Even the NOTES and the CHORDS are exactly the same. This is most obvious in the Music of The Night comparison. I'll eat my shoe if that's a coincidence.

[ElymnionElohim]

That Ray Repp song is almost identical with Phantom!!!!!!! Even pink floyd's notes are IDENTICAL!!!!!

[AntonioChiesa]

Can't stand Lloyd Webber as a man, but as a composer he is certainly not the only alleged plagiarist. Boubil and Schronberg (seem to have) ripped 'Bring Him Home' in Les Mis straight from Puccini's Whispering Chrous in Madama Butterfly.

[incredulousG3]

@aMgVbros4aetas You are right, Mr. Musical Genius. Both songs are in 4/4. Waters was mistaken. But the similarity still stands regardless. And, as people have pointed out, its called transposition(changing keys of songs but maintaining the solfege structure). Transposition is not the same as composition. 

[BadIdeaBearCub]

LLoyd Weber admitted once on a TV special, that he did plagiarized Puccini in Cats and Phantom, and got away with it. I was actually looking to see if somebody had uploaded the clip when I got here.

[AustinLikesPepsi]

Here's my list:

Bolero: No

Till You: Sounds like a mix between title song from Phantom and Close Every Door from Joseph sooo... Yes

La Fanciulla Del West: No

Echos: HELL YES WITHOUT A DOUBT!

Violin Concerto: Yes

Rosemary: No

[StillLifeWithMangoes]

@AustinLikesPepsi la fanciulla del west has totally been ripped off, its just been changed key.

[zyaffee]

@aMgVbros4aetas Righto. So just transpose keys, change the time signature, and WHAM. Totally different song.

Wait, you were being sarcastic, weren't you? Damn, sorry.

[langedefolie]

You need to hear his newest unfortunate musical, Love Never Dies. The title song is totally ripped from "The Apartment"'s "Jealous Lover" theme...

[PaulStaveley]

My god, musician uses themes that are familiar from earlier work - whatever next?! And to say he isn't really trying...he did write the rest of all those ridiculously successful musicals, right?

[NonInflatable]

"Lord" Webber settled out of court with the Puccini estate for the Phantom of the Opera "mistake".

[Marcatissimo]

ALSO, I just noticed this the other day. The song "Green Tambourine" by the Lemon Pipers is pretty INCREDIBLY similar to the intro to "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" from Evita.

See for yourself.

[SuperSolano24]

Plagiarist!!!!!

[FourthDerivative]

How to Succeed on Broadway Without Really Trying.

[swsb40]

Lloyd Webber also needs to plagiarize someone else’s face!!!

[DJLucas06]

Clearly he genius plagiarist!! He's a multi-millionaire!!

[PuddingMcMuffin]

All of those songs being similar CAN'T just be a coincidence. He definitely stole those themes.

[LoudFast1234]

the til i hear you sing from love never dies is kinda a rip off of an aria from tosca called recondita armonia. u can really tell at the end of both songs. pretty much the same notes.

[iLLUSiiONS111]

@gingergirlgimbus No way is "Phantom of the Opera" better than Pink Floyd's "Echoes"

[PhantomReviews]

There's similarities in "Love Never Dies" too. Beneath a Moonless Sky has hints of "Sallys Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas, and "Beauty Underneath" is similar to "Insanity" from Oingo Boingo. Both Danny Elfman works, funnily enough.

[jewelmarkess]

@gingergirlgimbus Hello? You aren't saying that he is better than Puccini or Ravel????? Try listening to Fanciulla del West, it'll probably be on PBS this year in some parts of the US. Not even close.

[phantomphan4ever1]

Love the Phantom <333 but the echoes is kinda iffy, the other ones seem conincidences.

[Bl00dyStrike]

This is really too much of an coincedience

If he did really plagiarist those song the phantom overture still has my favour for being played on an organ else it wouldn't get my favour at all but i can't let my obsession with organ musics turn my decission up side down so webber lost on this one and i don't want to f*** with him,his army of lawyers and his luckiness for not being sued at all for those songs and music he copied.

[jewelmarkess]

@Bl00dyStrike Wiki says Puccini estate did sue him. They settled out of court for an unspecified price.

[regvernon]

Clever compilation. Makes you think.

[SuperCarMania]

Genius!

[daz1233]

@BearcatWizard Haha, I see what you did there, very clever :-)

[BearcatWizard]

The very beginning of the video sounds like someone had already wrote the melody before Any Dream will Do from Joseph?

[1AdrianR]

@1AdrianR Let's also not forget the Requiem, especially the Pie Jesu and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.

[brosephhhh]

@1AdrianR dude its practically the same verse out of the song echoes. i mean seriously. its in the same time and everything. cant dispute that.

[BillyG800]

genius.

[clapton1958]

Coincidence? I think bloody not. Oh, and the Puccini estate nailed him for this theft. When they filed in court, "Lord" Webber decided to settle out of court. Clearly, clearly not guilty.

[1AdrianR]

@clapton1958 It is possible he was paying hommage to one of his greatest inspirations. Other great composers did this too. For example, Richard Strauss quoted a phrase of Beethoven's in one his tone poems.

[clapton1958]

@1AdrianR Possible, but he could be more, you know, humble.

[bjnboy]

"Yeah, the beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from Echoes. *DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da* . I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It's the same time signature - it's 12/8 - and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber." - Roger Waters

[ShaneGuitar13]

@bjnboy We cower in our shelters

With our hands over our ears

Lloyd-Webber's awful stuff

Runs for years and years and years

An earthquake hits the theatre

But the operetta lingers

Then the piano lid comes down

And breaks his fucking fingers

It's a miracle - Roger Waters:Its A Miracle

[simonferr]

@bjnboy I agree with Waters, except that the time signature is a 4/4, not a 12/8!

[joethulhuz]

@1AdrianR That's why I say "might". I'm still extremely doubtful they have anything to do with each other.

[xandekocsi]

@1AdrianR you're right, but you can't deny that they sound the same and it's recurrent with Webber's songs

[ddoohhaa]

@1AdrianR I agree with you. Lloyd Webber has admitted that I Don't Know How to Love Him shouldn't have been recorded, but it was too late. I don't think it was deliberate. Teh Music of the Night has 2 possible sources, Puccinni and Brigadoon. Seems odd that a person would plagiarize by taking melodies from two different places and sticking them together!!!

[ddoohhaa]

Uh oh a new one...Love Never Dies is stolen from the theme from the apartment :)

[ddoohhaa]

conqueso62 EVERYONE knows Bolero!!!

[conqueso62]

Thank you for bringing this to light. He chose to copy such early artists that no one ever suspected what he was doing. Thanks

[ddoohhaa]

Don't Cry For Me, Argentina and Rosemary I love you, I'm always thinking of you

[Dracorex13]

You missed the most blatant one of all:

Debussy's l'Apres-Midi d'une Faune (Afternoon of a Faun). Listen to it and tell me what it reminds you of.

[violasrule68]

It's one thing building homages to other composers into your works (plenty of classical, jazz , film and pop composers have done this over the years), but in that instance it's considered courteous to credit the original - or at least not to deny it. AL-W is a fantastic businessman - he is absolutely not a composer.

[violasrule68]

Oh come on, sgtcrag!! Perhaps the melodies might accidentally bear a passing resemblance, but so many of the accompanying rhythms and chord progressions as well? That Pink Floyd/Phantom and Rosemary/JCS ones are absolutely blatant.

[gowaneil]

Thanks for putting this up.

I do not want to rise up any argument. Hence, I should keep my opinion with myself. Thanks a lot still. : )

[Schminkles]

@edwardsshellie43

Are you hearing impaired?

[RebelVoDKa]

Brilliant. , Till You, Echoes and Rosemary are pretty much identical. What a rip off merchant.