Several reputable hit songs, both on the United Kingdom Singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100, have had their reputations fairly tarnished due to copyright lawsuits. Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”, George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord”, and Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” are just a few to name. Another No. 1 hit to add to that list is Rod Stewart’s 1978 hit, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, which peaked at No. 1 on the UK singles chart on this day, December 2, 1978.
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Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” is one of the artist’s six No. 1 singles on the UK singles chart. Prior to “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” peaking at No. 1 on the chart, Stewart landed No. 1 hits with “Maggie May”, “You Wear It Well”, and the double A-sided single “I Don’t Want to Talk About It / First Cut Is the Deepest”. That being said, Stewart’s fifth No. 1 single on the chart was “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”. However, this achievement was met with some consequences.
Why Rod Stewart Agreed To Donate His Royalties to Charity
Sometime after the release of “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor sued Stewart for copyright infringement, given that the chorus of Stewart’s single was similar to Jor’s 1972 song, “Taj Mahal”. Both parties settled the lawsuit outside of court, and Stewart allegedly agreed to donate all of the song’s royalties to UNICEF, per Briffa.
Concerning the copyright infringement, Stewart did admit to an “unconscious plagiarism” of the chorus in his 2012 autobiography, Rod: The Autobiography. Despite this legal hiccup, Stewart’s single was still a massive success. In addition to peaking at No. 1 on the UK singles chart, the song also peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the top spot for four weeks. Even though the song was a major commercial success, it did not win any major awards. Furthermore, Stewart seemingly didn’t make much of a profit off the single due to his reported legal agreement.
Needless to say, Stewart’s No. 1 single has a colorful history, a colorful history that allegedly resulted in a positive outcome for humanity. Following the success of “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, Rod Stewart went on to score another hit on the UK Singles chart. That hit was his 1983 single “Baby Jane,” which also had a great chart run on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
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