Olivia Rodrigo gives Paramore a writing credit on Good 4 U

August 2024 · 3 minute read

By Mark SavageBBC music reporter

Getty Images Olivia RodrigoGetty ImagesOlivia Rodrigo's debut album is the biggest-selling record of 2021 so far

Olivia Rodrigo has added two members of Paramore to the writing credits of her hit single Good 4 U.

Singer Hayley Williams and ex-guitarist Josh Farro are now listed as co-writers of the song, which topped the UK charts for five weeks over the summer.

Fans had previously noted similarities between Good 4 U and Paramore's Misery Business, posting dozens of mash-ups to YouTube and Tik Tok.

It is not currently clear when Paramore were added as co-writers of the track.

They were not credited when the song was originally released in May, but a person with knowledge of the situation told the BBC that teams for both artists had "been in touch prior to the song's release".

"The production credits have now been updated to include an interpolation of Misery Business, alongside Rodrigo and the track's producer, Dan Nigro," they added.

The update was first revealed by Paramore's publishers, Warner Chappell Music, who celebrated Good 4 U reaching number one in the US with a Instagram post saying: "huge shoutout to our writers Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro".

Williams later shared the post, adding: "Our publisher is wildin rn [right now]".

Instagram / Hayley Williams Hayley Williams' Instagram postInstagram / Hayley Williams1px transparent line

It has become common practice for writers to be given retroactive credit on songs, often to avoid costly plagiarism proceedings.

Ed Sheeran shared the royalties of Shape Of You with the musicians behind TLC's No Scrubs, while Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars gave members of The Gap Band a cut of Uptown Funk, which drew on elements of Oops Upside Your Head.

Rodrigo, whose debut album Sour is the biggest-seller of the year, also credited Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff on the track 1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back - due to its interpolation of melodies from Swift's New Year's Day.

She was also accused of lifting a guitar riff from Elvis Costello's 1978 hit Pump It Up for the album's opening track, Brutal - but the British rock star brushed off the complaints, saying: "This is fine by me."

"It's how rock & roll works," he wrote. "You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That's what I did."

The veteran singer-songwriter went on to note how Bob Dylan's 1965 classic Subterranean Homesick Blues had inspired Pump It Up; and that Chuck Berry's 1956 single Too Much Monkey Business had, in turn, influenced the Dylan song.

You can listen for the parallels between Good 4 U and Misery Business below.

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