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The Classic Song "Mr. Touchdown USA": A Blatant Ripoff Of The Rutgers Fight Song?!

DirtyRU

DirtyRU

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Nov 16, 2002
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OK so let me preface this by saying I'm not some music aficionado. I was always in choir, so I never played an instrument, can't read musical notes, etc. That said, I have ears, ha. And lately for some strange reason the scene in Revenge Of The Nerds where the cheerleaders & football team perform "Mr. Touchdown USA" in the college talent show has been in my head. Wasn't sure why. I've also been listening to the TKR podcast a lot lately, for obvious reasons, and it always opens with the Rutgers fight song after the first ad.

So yesterday, I'm hearing the Nerds song in my head (which at the time I didn't realize is actually a classic football song originally written in 1950 and is performed by college bands nationwide) and then I start hearing the Rutgers fight song in my head and suddenly I'm like holy sh#t, they're essentially the same melody!!! I don't even know if melody is the right word usage here, but dang, they are awfully similar tunes/notes, whatever. So that leads me to this: Was Mr. Touchdown USA a blatant ripoff of our sacred fight song? And if so, where the lawsuits at?!?! Ha. Let me know your thoughts. Links below:

Just One Rendition, But Yeah...

Our Song...
 
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GoodOl'Rutgers

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You go through any old college song books and you will notice that many lyrics have the phrase .. "sung to the tune of.." And some classic song.

Apparently, America has many wordsmiths but few who could score memorable original music... and they seem to borrow from the same sources as well.
 
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yessir321

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DirtyRU said:
OK so let me preface this by saying I'm not some music aficionado. I was always in choir, so I never played an instrument, can't read musical notes, etc. That said, I have ears, ha. And lately for some strange reason the scene in Revenge Of The Nerds where the cheerleaders & football team perform "Mr. Touchdown USA" in the college talent show has been in my head. Wasn't sure why. I've also been listening to the TKR podcast a lot lately, for obvious reasons, and it always opens with the Rutgers fight song after the first ad.

So yesterday, I'm hearing the Nerds song in my head (which at the time I didn't realize is actually a classic football song originally written in 1950 and is performed by college bands nationwide) and then I start hearing the Rutgers fight song in my head and suddenly I'm like holy sh#t, they're essentially the same melody!!! I don't even know if melody is the right word usage here, but dang, they are awfully similar tunes/notes, whatever. So that leads me to this: Was Mr. Touchdown USA a blatant ripoff of our sacred fight song? And if so, where the lawsuits at?!?! Ha. Let me know your thoughts. Links below:

Just One Rendition, But Yeah...

Our Song...
Click to expand...
You’ll be blown away when you listen to ‘My Country tis of thee’ and ‘God Save the Queen’
 
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SBP

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DirtyRU said:
OK so let me preface this by saying I'm not some music aficionado. I was always in choir, so I never played an instrument, can't read musical notes, etc. That said, I have ears, ha. And lately for some strange reason the scene in Revenge Of The Nerds where the cheerleaders & football team perform "Mr. Touchdown USA" in the college talent show has been in my head. Wasn't sure why. I've also been listening to the TKR podcast a lot lately, for obvious reasons, and it always opens with the Rutgers fight song after the first ad.

So yesterday, I'm hearing the Nerds song in my head (which at the time I didn't realize is actually a classic football song originally written in 1950 and is performed by college bands nationwide) and then I start hearing the Rutgers fight song in my head and suddenly I'm like holy sh#t, they're essentially the same melody!!! I don't even know if melody is the right word usage here, but dang, they are awfully similar tunes/notes, whatever. So that leads me to this: Was Mr. Touchdown USA a blatant ripoff of our sacred fight song? And if so, where the lawsuits at?!?! Ha. Let me know your thoughts. Links below:

Just One Rendition, But Yeah...

Our Song...
Click to expand...
As a professional musician, I can tell you...Not even close.
 
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DirtyRU

DirtyRU

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SBP said:
As a professional musician, I can tell you...Not even close.
Click to expand...
So what am I hearing then? Why do they sound similar to me? Is it a timing thing? Something has to be similar.
 
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yessir321

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DirtyRU said:
So what am I hearing then? Why do they sound similar to me? Is it a timing thing? Something has to be similar.
Click to expand...
if you wanna go down a youtube rabbit hole, look up how many melodies Kurt Cobain ripped off with Nirvana.

As for the fight songs there's a few similar notes during the initial crescendo and the tempo is similar.

There's only so many ways to make a wheel so to speak. For real listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and immediately follow it up with "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult, extremely simily melody. Nirvana famously faced a lawsuit that was dropped after Kurts death by the band Killing Joke for Kurt not even trying to hide how much he ripped off the riff for "Come as you are" from the Killing Joke song "Eighties"
 
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DirtyRU

DirtyRU

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yessir321 said:
if you wanna go down a youtube rabbit hole, look up how many melodies Kurt Cobain ripped off with Nirvana.

As for the fight songs there's a few similar notes during the initial crescendo and the tempo is similar.

There's only so many ways to make a wheel so to speak. For real listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and immediately follow it up with "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult, extremely simily melody. Nirvana famously faced a lawsuit that was dropped after Kurts death by the band Killing Joke for Kurt not even trying to hide how much he ripped off the riff for "Come as you are" from the Killing Joke song "Eighties"
Click to expand...
Wow, def. will check out. Good info! When I think of ripoffs, my brain always goes to Huey Lewis and how annoyed he was with Ray Parker, Jr. claiming "Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters" was a blatant rip of "I Wanna New Drug".
 
A

AreYouNUTS

Heisman
Aug 1, 2001
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DirtyRU said:
Wow, def. will check out. Good info! When I think of ripoffs, my brain always goes to Huey Lewis and how annoyed he was with Ray Parker, Jr. claiming "Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters" was a blatant rip of "I Wanna New Drug".
Click to expand...
HOLY CRAP....never thought about "Godzilla" and "Teen Spirit" that's....dare I say....NUTS!!!
 
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yessir321

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DirtyRU said:
Wow, def. will check out. Good info! When I think of ripoffs, my brain always goes to Huey Lewis and how annoyed he was with Ray Parker, Jr. claiming "Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters" was a blatant rip of "I Wanna New Drug".
Click to expand...

Another one was Tom petty. ‘Won’t Back Down’ specifically uses the same melody as Lorraine Ellison’s ‘Stay With Me’
 
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RUDave_01

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DirtyRU said:
So what am I hearing then? Why do they sound similar to me? Is it a timing thing? Something has to be similar.
Click to expand...
The first line where the first 8 notes go up is essentially the same as the chorus to the Bells must ring. Then it's very different after that.

The song for Mr. Touchdown USA is modeled after a "classic" fight song. Most have very similar chord progressions, so they sound familiar. Interestingly, the chorus to The Bells Must Ring does not follow that traditional pattern as closely. Here is a link to the full song with the verse, which has a little more of a traditional sound to it:



It's not a perfect parallel, but if you ever listen to a blues band play a set, every song has the same chords progression played over and over. There are variations that make each song different, but the sound is definitely "blues". Hope that helps!
 
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ScarletDave

ScarletDave

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Former RU marching band member. The songs are very different, however the first measure plus 1 note are the same notes so that’s what you’re recognizing, so that is yes the same but 90% of the song is different.

Agree with above, many college football fight songs have a similar “style” and fall in the same cadence so there is a lot of cross-over … in 2017 we did a Big Ten fight song melody for halftime, will see if I can find the video, and so many of the songs flow right into each other. Penn State has done one also.

Agree with above as well that the Rutgers fight song “The Bells Must Ring” is a particularly strange fight song actually as far as patterns go, compared to most out there. I remember talking to friends in other Big Ten bands (where it’s tradition to play the visiting team’s fight song in the pregame show) all saying how hard it was to learn ours because of how unusual the patterns are.

Other fun note, The Bells Must Ring is not owned by the university, but rather an elderly couple who either wrote it or inherited it, I can’t remember, and they get paid a royalty whenever it’s used, which is why so few high school bands play it (usually HS around here have “On Wisconsin” or Notre Dame victory march, Duke is another popular one)
 
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Scarlet Jerry

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This fight song is not a ripoff, but composers constantly copy snippets from other composers. My favorite is James Horner’s Legends of the Fall opening track, where Horner included both the theme from Independence Day (solo trumpet right at the beginning), and “My Heart will Go” from Titanic (around the 1:20 mark). Of course, he wrote both of those soundtracks as well, so I guess you are allowed to copy yourself!

 
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DC8690

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I was like 30 before I realized the Alphabet Song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star were the same melody.
 
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Source

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That blatant rip off of the drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven" turned into that "Star...somethin...somethin" song.
 
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RU to the Core

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Smells like teen spirit is a way better song than Godzilla. It’s also a stretch.

Get free by the Hollie’s and Radiohead creep are a lot closer as a ripoff.

What’s even wilder is when I think a song is an original and it’s a cover. That blows my mind.

Cindy lauper. Girls just wanna have fun is a cover. Had no idea.

Or
Always something there to remind me. That 80s song is a cover. Mind blown.

Alone by heart is a cover. What!

Janis Joplin piece of my heart is a cover. That one blew me away.
 
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yessir321

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DC8690 said:
I’m hoping that means you didn’t realize it either and not ‘man what an idiot you are.’
Click to expand...
I didn’t realize it either… to the level that I had to immediately call my wife and ask her if she new this (she did)
 
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