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\u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You,\u201d the perennial hit song by Mariah Carey that has become a holiday ear worm for the ages, was not stolen from other songwriters, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled this week.<\/p>\n
In addition to dismissing the music copyright case, the judge, M\u00f3nica Ram\u00edrez Almadani, ordered the two songwriters who filed the lawsuit to pay at least part of the lawyers\u2019 fees for Ms. Carey and Walter Afanasieff, her co-writer and a co-defendant.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, which sought $20 million in damages, relied on music experts who claimed \u201csimilarities in isolation,\u201d the judge found, but who failed to put those similarities in the context of the entire song. The judge said that the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing substantial similarities.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs \u2014 Andy Stone, who uses the stage name Vince Vance, and Troy Powers \u2014 wrote the song in 1988, court documents show. Their song, also called \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You,\u201d was recorded by Vince Vance and the Valiants and released in 1989.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It became a hit, appearing on Billboard\u2019s Hot Country chart in 1994 and returning to the chart multiple times in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Ms. Carey\u2019s song of the same name was released in late 1994 on her Christmas album, \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit, lawyers for Mr. Stone and Mr. Powers said that the close timing of the success of the earlier song and Ms. Carey\u2019s release \u201cpoints to the overwhelming likelihood that Carey and Afanasieff, both career musicians and songwriters, who knew the importance of charting on Billboard, had access to the Vance work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit said that the Vance song \u201ccontains a unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one\u201d and writes to Santa Claus.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the plaintiffs also said that Ms. Carey and Mr. Afanasieff should have sought a license or other permission from Mr. Stone and Mr. Powers because of that \u201cunique and original\u201d two-part sequence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The lyrical phrase \u201cAll I want for Christmas is you\u201d is at the end of every verse throughout the Vance song, and that phrase also appears throughout Ms. Carey\u2019s song, the lawsuit said. It also said that her song used more than 50 percent of Mr. Vance\u2019s work, in the lyrics and the chords.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for Ms. Carey and Mr. Afanasieff said that the music and the lyrics of the two songs were completely different.<\/p>\n
They said that the lawsuit was \u201cabsurdly relying on\u201d references \u201cto snow, mistletoe, presents under Christmas trees and wanting a loved one for Christmas\u201d that appear in both songs. They said that \u201cthe human condition, and the need for the company of another above all else at Christmastime,\u201d were not themes that were protectable by copyright.<\/p>\n
Judge Ram\u00edrez Almadani heard testimony from two expert musicologists for each side, but she ultimately agreed with those testifying for Ms. Carey and Mr. Afanasieff.<\/p>\n
One of those experts found no significant harmonic similarities between the songs, because the chord progressions and harmonic rhythms are \u201cvery different\u201d in both works, the judge said in her ruling.<\/p>\n
The expert also found that the two songs share only five words: mistletoe, Santa Claus\/Santa, snow, stocking and Christmas, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The phrases referring to the holiday season \u2014 \u201call I want for Christmas is you\u201d and \u201cunderneath the Christmas tree\u201d \u2014 as well as \u201cjust one thing\u201d and \u201ccome true\u201d were all part of a holiday vocabulary long before either of the songs was written, the judge said.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for each side were not immediately available on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Over the past three decades, Ms. Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You\u201d has become one of the longest-charting singles in any genre, spending 65 weeks on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100.<\/p>\n
Jack Begg contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n