Diane Warren, Chicago the band, and an old lawsuit
Look away baby, look away...
About 7 years ago on my old website I published a blog post titled “10 Classic Rock Bands That Probably Just Need To Stop.”
The band Chicago was on that list. When Peter Cetera left the band in 1985 it was hard to see the band continuing on with the same success. But they brought on Jason Scheff (son of Elvis Presley’s bass player Jerry Scheff) to replace Cetera and nailed it with “Will You Still Love Me?” (#3) in 1986 and numerous other tracks to finish out the 80s.
One of those songs was written by award winning songwriter Diane Warren, “Look Away.” The song went to #1 for 2 weeks in 1988 and in a strange twist became the #1 song for the entire year of 1989.
But wait - that's not all.
In 2018 Brendan Greaves of Yorkshire in the UK filed a $20 million lawsuit against Warren for stealing “Look Away” from him. As I fumbled around the Internet trying to find more information, I came across Greaves’s own personal account of what happened on a website called SecondHandSongs.com. It was posted in 2017, prior to the lawsuit. I have corrected the typos to make this an easier read:
Chicago's #1 hit single "Look Away" is a song that I believe is inspired by my own song called “Look Away” written a year earlier, during a school music lesson when I was 14.
I wrote the lyrics and music for “Look Away” as part of a National Schools Make Music Competition run by (record label) EMI. I submitted my audio cassette to EMI in January 1987 which featured my school music teacher Mrs. Askew singing the lyrics and the head of the Music Department recording the instruments.
EMI liked my song and awarded me a Semi Finalist position in the competition and I received an award dated 1987. Gary Barlow won the competition, he was also a school boy and went on to join (the band) Take That.
Unbeknownst to me, Diane Warren, an American Songwriter with close ties to EMI, (I believe from the evidence) also liked my song and took it as her own, adapting it into a chart song. She passed it on to (the band) Chicago who then released it on their Chicago 19 album in July 1988.
Diane Warren claims full writing credits and refuses to allow me any writing credit or royalties for my song.
The song went to #1 in America and #1 in Canada and remains Chicago’s biggest hit.
Oh, the questions I have.
On the surface, I think most people would agree this is a believable story. But why did Greaves wait 30 years to say something?
Online sources say he was from a small town and had not heard the Chicago song until 2015. This seems plausible when you consider that “Look Away” only reached #77 on the UK chart and the Chicago 19 album did not chart at all.
According to TMZ, Greaves says Warren copyrighted her tune eight months after he submitted his "Look Away" to the National Schools Make Music Competition in England.
In the suit, Greaves says he believes EMI gave Diane access to his song. He points out the similarity in the lyrics. For example:
Greaves' says: "If you see me walking by with a tear in my eye, look away, baby, look away."
Warren's says: "If you see me walking by and the tears are in my eyes, look away, baby, look away."
The suit was filed in Los Angeles and unfortunately there does not seem to be much documentation available on how it turned out. It seems the parties were pushed in the direction of a private settlement, and the case was then completely dismissed only a few months later.
I reached out to Greaves to see if I could learn more. He did respond, but would only say that “The matter has been amicably resolved.” (I assume he’s legally bound to say this.)
I sure would like to hear his “Look Away.” It has to still be out there somewhere, right? Did no one keep a copy?
Or did it never actually exist?
Believe it or not, as recently as a couple of years ago I was still foolish enough to believe most people told the truth most of the time. But that’s not reality, is it?
There are some people out there who lead a life that is completely full of lies. They have to lie to cover up their lies. It gets so out of control for them that they begin to believe their lies. It’s a disease and it’s sad. When you meet someone like this, it’s a real drag. You’ll lose all hope and go on a bender. (Or maybe that was just me.)
My point is, while the story Greaves tells sounds plausible, we have no idea if he’s a whack job who dreamed the entire thing up or if Diane Warren really did steal (at least part of) his song. And we (the public) will probably never know.
I will say this...would you be surprised if a 14-year-old wrote these lyrics:
If you see me walking by
And the tears are in my eyes
Look away, baby, look away
If we meet on the street someday
And I don’t know what to say
Look away, baby, look away
Don't look at me
I don't want you to see me this way
When you called me up this morning
Told me 'bout the new love you found
I said I'm happy for you
I'm really happy for you
It never occurred to me how wimpy and sophomoric the lyrics for “Look Away” are until I began writing this. Then again, I don’t think of Diane Warren as a great lyricist as much as she is an accomplished songwriter.
I think there’s a difference.
She has a knack for emitting emotion with subject matter, title, and painting a story in the listener’s head:
“When I See You Smile” - Bad English
”Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” - Starship
”If I Could Turn Back Time” - Cher
”How Do I Live” - LeAnn Rimes/Trisha Yearwood
”I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” - Aerosmith
”Unbreak My Heart” - Toni Braxton
Those are some great, highly acclaimed pop songs. But if we’re really being honest, they’re not Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, or Bob Dylan.
A really good songwriter can do what Diane Warren does and is good with word play. That’s just my opinion.
There have been many lawsuits over the years regarding popular songs. Some are legit, some are bogus. I’ll probably be highlighting more of these in the future because I find them interesting and I think it’s something songwriters should be aware of. And music lovers should understand the oddities that songwriter’s deal with.
I just ended two straight sentences with a preposition. The End.
Dude, Someone as huge as Diane Warren is now, with her money and legal representation, would have never settled out of court if this guy didn't have stuff in his corner to prove it. She settled because she most likely stole it, wants it to go away fast with little publicity, and doesn't want a microscope put on her other songs once this guy wins the suit. Also remember, it was earlier in her career and I'm sure while she's probably not stealing songs in the later 90s onward, I wouldn't be surprised to find her suspect in her early years.
It's not unheard of in music for random people to write a hit song. Heck, two housewives from New Jersey wrote "Dress You Up" for Madonna, which became a hit for her. And they never had any other success.
This guy not only had recognition from EMI of his submission, he had school faculty who were involved in the recording. She settled, and she settled fast for a reason.