Hypable reader Rose wrote to us about a tweet she saw from Jonathan Coulton – a singer who she’s a big fan of. The artist is calling out Glee for copying his cover of “Baby Got Back,” which is set to appear in the January 24th episode.
Coulton (affectionately known as JoCo by his fans) did a cover of the song with his own original arrangement back in 2005. If you compare his cover VS the Glee cover, you’ll see the striking similarities.
Glee’s “Baby Got Back”
JoCo’s “Baby Got Back”
JoCo took to Twitter to complain about the rip off:
Hey look, @gleeonfox ripped off my cover of Baby Got Back: bit.ly/WME9Ho. Never even contacted me. Classy.
— Jonathan Coulton (@jonathancoulton) January 18, 2013
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After listening, I think that @gleeonfox may have even used parts of my recording. Do I hear a duck quack? And of course they say “Johnny C”
— Jonathan Coulton (@jonathancoulton) January 18, 2013
Any audio maestros want to investigate if the actual AUDIO is the same (aside from the vocals)? Sounds like it, but I need science.
— Jonathan Coulton (@jonathancoulton) January 18, 2013
There is zero doubt that Glee’s cover is the exact same version of Coulton’s cover. The main question is: Why did Glee not reach out to Coulton? Did they try, and the message was simply undiscovered by Coulton?
Rose describes JoCo as “the ultimate Geek musician.” Be sure to support him by checking out his official site where he calls this incident “weird and exciting.” We’ll keep you updated.
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