Marvin Gaye's family claim Pharrell Williams' 'Happy' sounds like 'Ain’t That Peculiar'

After winning their court case against Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and TI for copyright infringement of Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up”, the late singer’s family have now claimed William’s hit “Happy” borrows from Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar”.

“I’m not going to lie. I do think they sound alike,” Gaye’s daughter told CBS News.

“I heard the mash-ups – but I didn’t really need to hear them,” said Gaye’s ex-wife Janis. “I know ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ and I’ve heard ‘Happy.’”

However, the family – who inherited the copyright to the soul legend’s music following his death in 1984 – said they did not intend to bring about further legal action. “We’re just in the moment today and we’re satisfied.”

Williams and Thicke were ordered to pay $7.3m (£4.8m) to Gaye’s family earlier this week following a ruling at the US District Court in Los Angeles Court.

Nona, who reportedly wept when the verdict was read, said: “Right now, I feel free. Free from…Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.”

In a statement following the trial, Thicke and Williams’ lawyer Howard E King said: “There was no properly admissible evidence upon which the jury could have found copying. A comparison of the two songs readily reveals that there isn’t one note in the melody that’s the same, there isn’t one chord in the entire song that’s the same, and there are no more than three notes in the bass lines, out of 26 notes, that are the same.”

He added: “This matter is not finished by any stretch of the imagination”.

“Blurred Lines” earned more than $5m each for Thicke and Williams. Although both are credited as its songwriters, Williams reportedly wrote the song in about an hour in 2012, and the pair recorded it in one night.

William's hit single “Happy” became the best-selling song of 2014, selling more than 1.5m copies in the UK and 6.5m in the US.

Growing Pains alum Alan Thicke, who told Us Weekly that when he and his wife hit the sheets it's often to his son's music.

"When we do get freaky, we love [Robin's song] 'Sex Therapy,'" Tanya Callau, Thicke's wife of 10 years, and Thicke told Us Weekly. "You have to admit, it's a great song to get in the mood."

JANUARY 12, 2016 10:15am PT by Eriq Gardner
Hollywood Docket: Marvin Gaye Family Wants $3.4 Million More in "Blurred Lines" Lawsuit

Although the copyright dispute over "Blurred Lines" is now headed to an appellate court, there is one big issue remaining for a trial court in the dispute between Marvin Gaye's family and Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke.

On Monday, Richard Busch and other attorneys representing the Gayes submitted a motion to a California judge requesting about $2.66 million in attorneys' fees and $777,000 in allowable expenses.

The Gayes emerged mostly victorious at a trial last March when a jury came back with a $7.4 million verdict. The judge later trimmed the amount to $5.3 million and granted a request for an ongoing royalty rate of 50 percent of songwriter and publishing revenues.

In the motion yesterday, Nona and Frankie Gaye proclaim themselves the prevailing party entitled to their fees and expenses. They say they originally reached out to Thicke's camp to discuss the belief that "Blurred Lines" was copied from Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up," and rather than working out a licensing deal, the other side hit them with a lawsuit seeking a declaration of non-infringement.

"They made a brave decision to fight when sued and to protect the copyright to one of the most iconic songs of all time, despite being threatened themselves with an award of fees, which would have been economically disastrous to them," states the motion.

Busch's firm says it spent 6,033 hours on the case, and there's also money being requested for others. For instance the $3.4 million requested covers the work of transactional lawyer Mark Levinsohn and experts including Gary Cohen, Nancie Stern and Judith Finell who testified.