![]() Oh, by the way, the same melody can be heard in Elton John’s “Little Jeannie” in the lyrics Stepped into my life from a bad dream / Making the life that I had seem / Suddenly shiny and new. The money was paid into our joint company Stranger Music because my father was worried that if we didn’t, this would alert the other side to the fact that Cohen had chickened out, because then they would not have settled. Cohen said he wanted nothing to do with the case or the money. He said: ‘That’s not what my spirit is there for.’ So, we had to settle out of court and the deal we got was 15 per cent of the royalties when we would have got 100 percent in court. He told us that he would never submit himself to cross-examination in a court. But then we hit a problem: Cohen! He refused to testify. So, we were looking at substantial damages and royalties. Hammond’s people, Sayer’s people… they didn’t have a leg to stand on … and they knew it. Anyway, the melodic similarities were obvious and we immediately launched a lawsuit. It was credited to a songwriter called Albert Hammond. ‘When I Need You’ was beyond bad as a piece of music in my opinion, but it was a number one on both sides of the Atlantic. It was a straight rip off of Cohen’s ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’. “In 1977 my father had called me up from London and asked me to listen to a record by a British singer called Leo Sayer,” remembers Steven. Steven Machat, son of Leonard Cohen’s lawyer and manager, Marty Machat explains,įor the Machats, business continued as usual. 3 The LawsuitĪnd what about Leonard’s comment that “somebody sued them on my behalf?” Well, that’s yet another story. It should be noted that “When I Need You” was Mr Sayer’s biggest hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100, the Adult Contemporary chart in the US, and the pop charts in the UK, Canada, and Ireland. Yep, it turns out that the chorus of “When I Need You” - (When I) need you / I just close my eyes and I’m with you / and all that I so want to give you, is only a heart beat away - is, experts agree, musically identical to the portion of Leonard Cohen’s song “Famous Blue Raincoat” where Cohen sings Jane came by with a lock of your hair / She said that you gave it to her that night / That you planned to go clear. Do you remember that song When I Need You? … Somebody sued them on my behalf… and they did settle they hired a musicologist who said that particular motif was in the public domain and, in fact, could be traced back as far as Schubert. He also was a participant in the UK's Celebrity Big Brother 2007.I once had that happen with Leo Sayer. ![]() Sayer appeared in The Muppet Show in 1978 where he sang "The Show Must Go On", "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" and his best selling single, " When I Need You". He returned to the top of the UK singles chart in 2006 with a remix hit of his 1977 single, " Thunder in my Heart ". A number of hit singles followed in the early 1980s, including "Orchard Road" and "More Than I Can Say". His singing career went from strength to strength and by the late 1970s he was well known internationally having had hit singles and albums in the USA, Ireland, Sweden, Australia and other countries. He co-wrote a number of his songs, including this song. He performed this song dressed as a pierrot clown. Leo first found fame in his home country in 1973 when his single "The Show Must Go On" reached no 2 in the UK single charts. ![]() Leo also attended West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing to study commercial art and graphic design. Peter's Catholic Primary School in Shoreham and later attended Blessed Robert Southwell, renamed Chatsmore in Goring-by-Sea. Sayer was born in Shoreham-by-Sea to an English father and Irish mother on May 21st, 1948. ![]() He became an Australian citizen in January, 2009. He had hits such as " When I Need You", " The Show Must Go On", " Moonlighting" and " You Make Me Feel Like Dancing". He was most successful during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was born in Shoreham-by-Sea near the city of Brighton and Hove, England, on May 21st, 1948. Gerard Hugh "Leo" Sayer is an English-born pop singer.
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