[quote name='davo1224']Actually they might have a case. If you're only licensed to have a cover version, you can't do the same song with a soundalike voice. I remember Metallica getting really pissed off at Motorhead for doing this with "Enter The Sandman". If you don't pay attention, it sounds exactly like the original. If you notice whenever old songs are "updated" and used in advertisements they have the same words and a similar sounding tune but they're never exactly the same. That's why Cyndi Lauper hasn't had to slap a sucka down.[/quote]
If you license a song to cover, you can do whatever the hell you want. I find it ridiculous that Tom Waits actually won a court case for someone "sounding" like him. Should John Madden sue Frank Caliendo? Weak.
Also, the only way for you to think that Metallica is playing that cover and not Motorhead is if your definition of "if you don't pay attention" is to remove your brain from between your ears. If you can't recognize Lemmy's voice before he's done with the first word that comes out of your ears, you and Anne Frank have something in common - you're both deaf. (see Clerks 2 for reference)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKNLApfJNe4
I'm also curious to know where you read this 'information' regarding Metallica being mad at Motorhead, as the two bands have been friends for years. Metallica played at Lemmy's 50th birthday performing Motorhead songs under the band name "The Lemmys". Not to mention Metallica has recorded four Motorhead covers as b-sides over the years. I find it hard to believe that Metallica would get mad at ANY band for covering their songs, as Metallica has an entire 2-CD album devoted to them covering songs.
Anyway, the overall issue is pretty simple. Activision paid Epic Records a royalty fee for the rights to record a 'cover' of "What I Like About You". The two companies agreed to this, presumably because they could not come to an agreement for licensing of the master recording, instead (and if you've heard the RATM cover in GH2, you know why this makes a difference).
Unfortunately for The Romantics, they did not develop a 'sound' like they wish they had (see bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc. for reference), and thus reproducing their generic 80's tones is quite easy in this day and age of amp simulation and the ability of producers to duplicate not only the sounds of each instrument, but of the recording technique behind it. Finding a guy that can sing the lead vocal is the only tricky part, as you can't just turn on the "sounds like Bon Scott" knob like you can with amp distortion, hence the "awesome" to "awful" cover songs featured in the previous games.
Oddly enough, when I heard the re-recording of the Sex Pistols 'anarchy' in GH3, I thought "Who is the awful cover-band doing this song?!" only to discover that the original band actually played a worse version than their original. But I digress...
So what The Romantics said was, "Hey, we only got $_ from this deal instead of the $_ x2 that we do when TGIFriday's uses our crappy song to sell $10 steak combos! Let's see if we can squeeze more money out of this successful game and convince a judge that you can somehow copyright the sound of your voice like Tom Waits did! Hopefully he'll be a fan of our's like that guy apparently was."
If their management had been aware of what the prospect of having their original song in the game might mean for album sales and promotion - like how other bands clearly 'got' - this wouldn't even be news. Get with the times, you washed up hacks.
Don Henley and Phil Collins, Jimmy Marinos is not. Rock & Roll.
in' cash in. I'm still mad about that game, and I actually made money when I sold it off.
