A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled this week, “I’m going to be you that Christmas.”
In addition to dismissing the music copyright case, Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani ordered two songwriters to file a lawsuit to pay at least a portion of the attorney’s fees to Ms. Carey and Walter Afanasieff, her co-author and one co-official.
The judge found that the lawsuit sought $20 million in damages, relying on music experts who claimed “isolated similarities” to discover, but failed to put those similarities in the context of the entire song. The judge said the plaintiff was not burdened with showing substantial similarities.
Court documents show that the plaintiff wrote the song in 1988 using the stage names Vince Vance and Andy Stone of Troy Powers. Their song, also known as “Christmas I Want You”, was recorded by Vince Vance and Heroic and released in 1989.
Its hit topped the Hot Country chart for Billboard in 1994 and returned to the table several times in the 1990s.
Ms. Carey’s song of the same name was released in late 1994 on her Christmas album “Happy Christmas”.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Stone and Mr. Powers’ lawyers said the success of the early songs and the close timing of Ms. Carey’s release was “pointing the overwhelming possibility of Carey and Afanasf, who both knew the importance of being on Billboard, and they both could perform on Billboard.”
The lawsuit says Vance song “contains a unique linguistic structure where a person disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wanting to be with their loved ones,” and writes to Santa.
The plaintiff’s attorney also said Ms. Carey and Mr. Afanasif should seek permission or other permission from Mr. Stone and Mr. Powers because of the “unique and original” two-part sequence.
The lawsuit states that the lyrical phrase “I want Christmas to be you” is the final stanza of the entire Vance song, and the sentence also appears in Ms. Carey’s song. It also says that her songs use over 50% of Mr. Vance’s work in lyrics and chords.
Ms. Carey and Mr. Afanasieff’s lawyer said the music and lyrics of the two songs were completely different.
The lawsuit “reliably relies on” references “snow, mistletoe, gifts under the Christmas tree and hopes that the loved ones of Christmas will appear in Christmas”. “The human condition, and the need for the company of everyone else during Christmas” are not the subject of copyright protection.
Judge Ramírez Almadani heard the testimony of both expert musicologists, but she finally agreed with those who testified against Ms. Carey and Mr. Afanasif.
In her ruling, the judge said one of these experts did not find no obvious harmonic similarity between the songs, because in both works, the chord progress and the rhythm of the syllable “very different.”
Experts also found that the two songs have only five words: mistletoe, Santa/Santa, snow, stock and Christmas.
The judge said phrases involving holiday season – “I want Christmas to be everything for you” and “below the Christmas tree” – and “only one thing” and “come to come true” and “come to come true” are part of the holiday vocabulary.
Attorneys from both parties did not provide immediately on Saturday.
Over the past three decades, Ms. Carey’s “Christmas I Want You” has become one of the longest singles in any genre, spending 65 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Jack Begg Contributed to the research.
