The hook of Britney Spears‘ new single, “Hold It Against Me” is: “If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?” Those of you who remember the Bellamy Brothers’ 1979 song, “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body” will see why they think that the pop star has stolen their lyrics. The hook of that song is “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?” Strikingly similar, to say the least.
“Hey, Brit, if I said you ripped off our song, would you hold it against me?” said Howard Bellamy in a press release from their Nashville Publicist. His brother David added, “If you listen to the lyrics of Britney Spears’ new single, you’ll find some major similarities… She’s a talented gal. But professionally, well, in all honesty, we feel completely ripped off. Where’s the originality?”
What the press release doesn’t mention is that the Bellamys have previously admitted that they stole the line too, from Groucho Marx. Marx used the line in his 1950’s television series, You Bet Your Life.
In an interview with Songfacts a few years ago, Howard Bellamy was open about the source of the famous quote. “I have to give credit for that line to Groucho Marx,” he said then. “Groucho used to have a show on TV when we were growing up… He’d have guests on, and different quiz questions… He’d use that line occasionally and say, ‘If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?’ and shake his cigar and kind of raise his eyebrows.”
What do you think? Is Spears’ new song too close for comfort to the Bellamy Brothers’? Or, since Marx himself built the famous joke off of a common saying that had been around long before he used it, should we, as another famous song says, just call the whole thing off?
