Ed Sheeran Prepares to Defend Song in Court

Jury selection and opening statements are set to begin Monday in a trial that mashes up Ed Sheeran's “Thinking Out Loud” with Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On.” The heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye's co-writer of the 1973 soul classic, sued Sheeran, alleging the English pop star's hit 2014 tune has “striking similarities” to “Let's Get It On” and “overt common elements” that violate their copyright, per the AP. The lawsuit filed in 2017 has finally made it to a trial that is expected to last a week in the Manhattan federal courtroom of 95-year-old Judge Louis L. Stanton. Sheeran, 32, is among the witnesses expected to testify.

“Let's Get It On” is the quintessential, sexy slow jam that's been heard in countless films and commercials and garnered hundreds of millions of streams, spins, and radio plays over the past 50 years. “Thinking Out Loud,” which won a Grammy for song of the year, is a much more marital take on love and sex. While the jury will hear the recordings of both songs, probably many times, their lyrics—and vibes—are legally insignificant. Jurors are supposed to only consider the raw elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm that make up the composition of “Let’s Get It On,” as documented on sheet music filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Sheeran's attorneys have said the songs' undeniable structural symmetry points only to the foundations of popular music. “The two songs share versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters,” they said in a court filing. Townsend family attorneys pointed out in the lawsuit that artists including Boyz II Men have performed seamless mashups of the two songs, and that even Sheeran himself has segued into “Let's Get It On” during live performances of “Thinking Out Loud.” Gaye's estate is not involved in the case, though it will inevitably have echoes of their successful lawsuit against Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I. over the resemblance of their 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” to Gaye's 1977 “Got to Give it Up.” (More Ed Sheeran stories.)