Avril Lavigne “I want to be your girlfriend” lyrics sued for copyright infringement

July 9th, 2007 | Music Guru | Music News, Pop

Songwriters Tommy Dunbar, of the band the Rubinoos, and James Gangwer sued the Canadian pop princess Avril Lavigne Monday for copyright infringement, claiming that Avril’s hit single “I want to be your girlfriend” lyrics closely resembles their 1979 tune “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” because both feature that catchy, “Hey, hey, you, you” part.

“Hey, hey, you, you, I wanna be your boyfriend,” goes the Rubinoos’ track, while Lavigne, of course, opines, “Hey, hey, you, you, I don’t like your girlfriend,” among other “hey, hey, you, you” attention-getting devices, including “I want to be your girlfriend” and “I know that you like me.”

Lavigne’s Vancouver-based manager, Nettwerk Music Group CEO Terry McBride, told the Canadian Press that he hired a musicologist to study both songs and that there’s no evidence of copycatting.

Dunbar and Gangwer’s attorney, however, told the Canadian Press that the similarities are clear and that Lavigne copied sizable parts of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.”

“She’s made a lot of money off my client’s song,” Nicholas Carlin said from San Francisco, where the lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court. “The entire song is not the same, they have different bridges, but the heart and soul of her song is directly taken from our client’s song.”

Carlin also hired a musicologist, who “confirmed that the songs have, in her words, ‘a high degree of similarity.’”

A statement from the plaintiffs also goes on to cite Billboard critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s review of Lavigne’s album, in which he writes that “Girlfriend’s” chorus is “a total lift from the Rubinoos’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.’”

The suit also names Avril Lavigne Publishing and the singer’s songwriting partner, Luke Gottwald, aka Dr. Luke, as defendants. Dunbar and Gangwer are seeking unspecified damages.

A court date has been set for Aug. 28 in Oakland, California.

The Best Damn Thing, Lavigne’s third studio album, has sold more than 4 million copies. The multiplatinum effort is also gaining its fair share of attention from supposedly scorned songwriters, as well, however.