A judge ruled today that the flute riff in Met at Work’s 1981 hit “Down Under” plagiarizes the melody of “Kookaburra,” an Australian kids’ song written in 1932. A music publisher who bought the rights to “Kookaburra” in 1990 is suing for 40 to 60 percent of the royalties earned by “Under” in the last six years. Hilariously, Men at Work’s Colin Hay wrote the song in 1978 without any flute; the riff was added by Greg Ham when he joined the band in 1979. Hay is presumably now at work on colorful suggestions for what Ham can do with his flute. [CNN]
