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There has been a trend in recent years to incorporate lyrics and melodies from older songs into new songs. This can be very effective. Many times a portion of an old hymn may be used as a bridge. A recent example of a song that uses this technique very effectively, is found on the Happy Goodmans Final Stand CD. The song titled "The Reason" was written by Johnny Minick and Paul Jackson. It is a powerful lyric that makes an even greater impact after the bridge section in which they used two lines of "Blessed Assurance". After those two lines there is a key change and it goes back to this wonderful chorus that these two writers have created.

But writer's must beware. This practice can be very tricky. The first thing you must be certain of is that the song you are going to borrow from is not currently under copyright to someone. In the example above, there is no copyright infringement because "Blessed Assurance" is Public Domain. Anyone can use it, borrow from it, or do what they will with it. No one owns the copyright. As long as the song you use is Public Domain, then you are safe. But there are writers I know that have written wonderful songs using this practice, only to find out later that they were guilty of copyright infringement.

A well known southern gospel writer shared with me at NQC last year that he had written a new song and included several lines of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" in the bridge. To his amazement he found himself in a lot of hot water. "Great Is Thy Faithfulness", although it is old, is still under copyright. The owners of this hymn are a large secular publishing company. Their position was that this new song was a derivative of their copyright, and therefore they owned all of his new song. What this writer did was change his song. He omitted the bridge as part of his song. The existing recording of the song was then copyrighted as a medley arrangement. His group would have to pay royalties on the arrangement of that recording to the owners of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" for it's part in the medley, but they would have no legal claim to his new song.

In 1992 I found a great new song by a well known writer. I was singing with the Speer Family at that time. I thought that this song would be great for our group. But in the chorus of this song the writer used several lines of "I've Got That Old Time Religion In My Heart". The way the chorus was written, you could not omit those lines and still have a chorus that made sense. We checked with our record label and they said if we recorded that they would have to declare it a medley, and pay two royalties. The label was only willing to pay one royalty per song on our album. If we recorded it as a single copyright, then the writer would be in danger of losing all rights to their new song. So we did not record the song.

Back in 1982 the Hinson's recorded a song called The Light. In that song they used many lines from Ronny Hinson's classic song The Lighthouse. How did they get away with it without listing it as a medley? It was really quite simple. Ronny Hinson wrote both songs and Songs of Calvary published both songs. They could allow what ever they wanted to because they owned all rights to both songs.

My advice to you is that before you make a reference to another song in your new composition, do some research first. Make sure that the song you want to use is Public Domain. You can research this by going to the websites of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. If the song you want to use is not registered at any of these companies, chances are that it is Public Domain. If the writer has been dead for more than seventy years, it is probably Public Domain. But don't ever just assume that because it was old when you were a child, that it must be P.D..

If you are the least bit unsure of the status of the old song you want to use, then don't use it, or at least put it in a place where it can be taken out of your song without damaging the integrity of your new composition.

Until next time, keep on writing

Daryl

Reader Comments

Again, Daryl, very informative for us lil' beginners!

Amy Marie

“If somebody makes me laugh, I’m his slave for life.”—Bette Midler

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