Let’s Marvin Gaye and Get It On

How to creatively hack music copyright to keep melodies free for songwriters

Screenshot from Music Video

[You can also listen to this article’s soundtrack on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you like your music.]

This story is about much more than Charlie Puth’s supercool song, “Marvin Gaye.” It’s got lawyers, programmers, and the beautiful way songwriters hack the system to keep their art pure.

In 2015, Charlie Puth and friends released a cheerful little pop song titled simply, “Marvin Gaye,” featuring Meghan Trainor. It was critically canned, but this little song has quite a backstory that’s worthy of attention.

The Marvin Gaye family have a reputation for suing songwriters who rip off Gaye’s music or tarnish his name. But Puth and his collaborators had a neat little hack that saved them from trouble.

First, in a song, the only elements that can be copyrighted are melodies and lyrics. Interestingly, song titles cannot be copyrighted. So, the songwriters set about writing a song with a nod to various Marvin Gaye song titles.

Here’s just two verses:

Let’s Marvin Gaye and get it on
You got the healing that I want
Just like they say it in the song
Until the dawn, let’s Marvin Gaye and get it on