Olivia Dean Song Accused of Copying Bill Withers Hit in New Lawsuit

In 1980, the soul great Bill Withers teamed up with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. to release the heartfelt love song "Just The Two Of Us." It's technically Washington's song, as it came out in his album Winelight , but Withers co-wrote it with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter, and his vocal is the part that everyone remembers. "Just The Two Of Us" was a major hit upon release, reaching #2 on the Hot 100. Over the years, it has been covered, sampled, and referenced countless times. Now, Withers' publisher is accusing the hugely successful young British pop star Olivia Dean of ripping it off.

In their legal complaint, lawyers for Mattie Music Group write, "The number, character, and arrangement of the shared musical features are so striking that they support an inference that the similarities did not result from coincidence, independent creation, or reliance on common musical elements." I'm not a musicologist, but I think those two melodies do sound very similar, whether or not Dean and her co-writers intentionally copied "Just The Two Of Us." Hear both songs for yourself below.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs say that they contacted the defendants to notify them of the alleged infringement in August and that the defendants never changed the song's credits. Given that songwriting credits get retroactively changed all the time these days, it's surprising that this situation would reach the point of a lawsuit.

Bill Withers passed away in 2020. Olivia Dean's The Art Of Loving went gold in February, just after she won Best New Artist at the Grammys, and it has spun off the top-10 US hits "Man I Need" and "So Easy (To Fall In Love)."

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