Why Elvis Costello Didn’t Sue Olivia Rodrigo Over Brutal Guitar Riff

On By Littum

When pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo released her debut album Sad in 2021, many listeners were struck by the similarities between the power chord-driven guitar riff of its opener Brutaland Elvis Costello’s 1978 hit Pump it up.

But when he heard that, Costello was not interested in pursuing any kind of legal action against Rodrigo, saying it would have been “ridiculous”.

speaks to Vanity FairCostello reflects on his illustrious 50-year career and is asked how he feels about his first two albums – My goal is true (1977) and Model of the year (1978) – dominates his legacy as his time in music draws to a close.

“When my father died, he was the voice of a very famous lemonade commercial,” he recalls. “The headlines actually said: ‘Secret lemonade drinker dies’. As if he had never done anything else in a 50-year career. I have no doubt that a similar insult will accompany my death.

“But the truth is, if you wrote a song 50 years ago, which is almost since I wrote the first drafts of Alisonand it’s still being played by someone – think about what year it was when I started writing songs that I’m known for.

“Some of them come from 1975. Go back 50 years from that and tell me what songs were still being played (in the mid-’70s). If they are persistent, they are considered standards. So whether others like it or not, there are a few that I suspect have joined that company.

He continues: “I do not, self-consciously, regard them as such, but it is a historical fact. The strange thing to say is that very few of my songs have been performed by other people. By far the most successful and ubiquitous music for other artists that I have been involved in writing is The Juliet Letters… There aren’t that many who play – apart from maybe Pump it up. And then mostly not playing it, but alluding to it in their own arrangements. As did Olivia Rodrigo’s producer apparently.

“Now I found no reason to go after them legally for that, because I think that would be ridiculous. It is a common musical language. Other people obviously felt differently about other songs on that record. But if there were no quotes, there is no Bach. There would be no Mozart. There would be no Sonny Rollins. So we can’t start worrying about that.”