Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST VALLEY CITY -- A Utah piano tuner and his songwriting partner are turning up the heat on a famous pop star.
Monday they released detailed evidence which they say proves a song they wrote was stolen and turned into a big hit for singer Mary J. Blige, keeping her on the pop charts for 58 weeks.
Utah songwriters Brian Ballard and Kim Jones filed suit more than a year ago. They're releasing more evidence now to put pressure on lawyers whom they say have blocked access to vital documents and to Mary J. Blige herself.
Ballard tunes pianos for a living. He wrote the music to the song in question, called "Take Me As I Am." The words were written by lyricist Jones.
"Well, it was very personal to me when I was writing it," Jones said. "It was about myself, which a lot of people can relate to, what I've been through in life."
"'Take me as I am,'" Ballard said. "You know, I thought, ‘This is a wonderful idea.'"
They copyrighted the song in 1995 and made a demo tape, sending it out to a number of record labels.
The song was supposedly written for Blige by a team of composers and lyricists. Ballard and Jones claim at least two members of that team once worked for a music company that received a copy of their song back in 1995.
Years later, someone tipped them off that Blige was singing their song. She even performed it on "Oprah" and "Late Show with David Letterman" and in a Super Bowl commercial.
"When I first heard it, it was on a ringtone," Jones said.
"I was very hurt," Ballard said. "Songwriters, when they write a song, it's their baby."
They admit the songs don't necessarily sound the same -- but they say they discovered five solid similarities in the musical composition and 12 in the lyrics, which they argue were stolen.
"It was heartbreaking," Jones said. "I mean, the song was about me, what I've been put through, through my life."
This week, they're releasing a YouTube video with a report by Dr. Shannon Roberts, a music expert who found similarities in form, melodic structure and harmony.
"All of this could not have happened by chance," Roberts said. "It was just, the similarities were too great."
"What we hope is to receive our just due royalties," Ballard said.
A copyright infringement trial is scheduled for December in Los Angeles.
Lawyers for Blige and other defendants in the case issued a written statement Monday. Christine Lepera with the law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp said, "The case is completely without merit; no infringement took place. We are fully confident that the matter will be resolved in favor of our clients."
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
