i've been googling this for hours but can't come up with exactly what i'm looking for. advice/links greatly appreciated...

i want to use the chorus directly from a 70's song for the bridge to my song, but not sampling. theres a different musical arrangement and i'm singing it myself:

"daddy please don't, it wasn't his fault
he means so much to me
daddy please don't, we're gonna get married
just you wait and see"

it's in a different context, style, and directed at a different audience than the original.

do i have to get permission from someone to do this legally? if yes, and i was going through an independent record company, is that the type of thing they should take care of/pay for?

also, what's the deal with covers of pop songs, to be distributed?

Chord progressions can't be copyright, only hooks and melodies. So if they differ to the original you need to say that it was interploated from whichever song and still get permission, but you don't necessarily have to pay royalties.

Remember, only one in 8 notes needs to differ to make something original.

Although this is Australian copyright.

Covers need to be approved and usually are because a record company gets all the royalties for it again. So every time your cover is played and the original is played they get royalties = double payments = happy fat cats.

EDIT: You can't copy someones lyrics. It's called plagiarism.

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Long shot but are you a member of KoRn?

thanks for that

about plagiarism, though, of course anything is plagiarism if not cited but plenty of bands reference other songs/authors directly and verbatim in their own songs.

pj harvey in Dress- "music play, make it dreamy for dancing" is a kerouac quote for ex.

garbage has done this with authors and other songwriters work tons of times

regina spektor uses "raindrops keep falling on my head, but that doesn't mean that i will soon be dead" in a verse

and black eyed peas has the infamous "i wonder if i take you home would you still be in love with me" as their hook while it's the chorus to a lisa lisa song.

so i'm wondering how it can be done legally...

and lastly, much like the hit band korn i also come from bakersfield, ca. so i do appreciate the reference but alas i am a mere mortal among rap rock audiences.