The publisher behind ‘Love Is In The Air’ is suing US songwriters John Padgett and Lori Monahan over the alleged use of the song in an Air France television commercial.
The legal action is indeed bizarre as the ad doesn’t even use the song ‘Love Is In The Air’, the 1978 hit by John Paul Young. Instead it uses ‘Warm In The Winter’, the 2011 song by American electronic duo Glass Candy. Their song uses the words ‘love is in the air’ in the lyrics but not the core melody of the Vanda and Young penned hit.
Boomerang Investments, Harry Vanda and the estate of the late George Young claim ‘Warm In The Winter’ is a rip-off of ‘Love Is In The Air’ and therefore the writers owe them money for using the Canadian song.
The original John Paul Young ‘Love Is In The Air’ was a no 3 hit in Australia and reached no 5 in the UK and no 7 in the USA. It was also a top 10 hit in Austria, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland.
While Glass Candy’s ‘Warm In The Winter’ was released in 2011, it failed to chart and therefore wasn’t worth suing over. Boomerang Investments is seeing some easy cash now that the song has been sold to a major corporation.
Air France used the Glass Candy song in their 2015 ad campaign so it is even stranger that it has taken this long to generate any sort of legal action.
A Sydney judge has ruled that there is some evidence of similarity and has allowed the writers to be served. However, we all know how competent the legal system was in attacking Men At Work because of alleged similarities between ‘Down Under’ and ‘Kookaburra Sitting In An Old Gum Tree”.
Harry Vanda and George Young were the engine room of Australia’s first big international rock band The Easybeats. George died on 22 October 2017.
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