Wikipedia acknowledges that the chorus Crocodile Rock does resemble Pat
Boone's Speedy Gonzales - a song about the cartoon character.
It mentions nothing about a law suit.
A quick listen to both songs will show that they really have nothing to do
with each other. If a case was brought, it was probably considered without
merit.
However, there may have been some kind of action taken by the creators of
Speedy Gonzales against Pat Boone for using a trademarked name, or for his
use of a "Speedy Gonzales" voice at the beginning of his some, which may
have been some kind of copyright or trademark violation.
The Beach Boys did a version in the '90's and in the introduction they
inserted a few bars of their hit "Remember" possibly to remind Sir Elton how
close he came to one of their songs. Or in could be that the old
progressions of I - vi - IV - V was the foundation of thousands of songs,
and they had a little fun with it by laying down one of their old hits.
OR, they might have gotten a little publishing money from the recording by
putting a few of the "hook" measures into the song.
So that's what I got. I don't know if that information jives with anything
you know.
On 5/21/08 6:48 PM, in article
8798c228-6212-4720-aff1-c2ce3faf3... at (no spam) c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com,
"thedarkman" <A_Ba... at (no spam) abaron.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I'm looking for any information - preferably from a printed source -
of the law suit that the writers of Speedy Gonzales brought against
Elton John alledging he'd ripped off Crocodile Rock from it. I don't
know anything about the case except that they lost or withdrew.
Thanks- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
