Follow That Riff

Back in 1962, Ricky Nelson recorded a version of the George Gershwin song Summertime, which first appeared in the opera Porgy & Bess.  The lyrics were credited to Ira Gershwin (George's brother and frequent songwriting partner) and DuBose Heyward, who wrote the novel Porgy, on which the opera is based.  Nelson's version features a guitar riff, which forms the song's intro, and also appears thereafter as a counterpoint to the vocals.  The riff was most likely composed by Nelson's guitarist James Burton.


In 1966, the Blues Magoos recorded (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet, based on the same riff, which is played by the bass and the organ, and also appears in the vocal melody.  The song reached #5 on the U.S. charts.


In 1970, Deep Purple recorded Black Night, which was recorded in the same sessions as their In Rock album, but was released separately as a single.  The riff appears in the intro and in breaks later in the song.  In the thumbnail picture, based on Mount Rushmore, from left to right are Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards), Roger Glover (bass) and Ian Paice (drums).  Gillan and Glover had just joined the band, replacing original singer Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper.


With this riff appearing in three different songs, it might make sense to wonder why these artists or their representatives (or in the case of Nelson, his estate) aren't suing each other.  However, it seems that no one can easily claim to own the rights to the riff.  If the Blues Magoos were to sue Deep Purple, DP could tell the BM, "No, you got it from Nelson, so you can't say that it's yours."  If Nelson's estate tried to sue anyone, they could say, "Wait a minute, Nelson didn't even write Summertime, so his heirs don't own its music."  If Gershwin's heirs were to sue someone, they could defend themselves by saying, "The riff didn't appear in the original song, so George's heirs can't possibly be its rightful owners".  The riff might be, in a sense, an intellectual property orphan, because it was composed in order to arrange an already-existing song, and therefore could not feasibly be copyrighted unto itself.