I Know I Left Too Soon

Kaytranada featuring PinkPantheress “Snap My Finger”

It took me a few listens to figure out why a bit of the verse melody in this song sounded so incredibly familiar to me, but then it hit me – there’s a melodic turn in the verse that’s just like one of the most memorable parts of Wham’s early 80s classic “Everything She Wants.” I suppose it’s just different enough to justify not giving George Michael a songwriting credit, though I think his estate could easily get it in a post-“Blurred Lines” legal landscape.

Not that I think Kaytranada and PinkPantheress should be giving that sort of credit, per se. “Snap My Finger” is a substantially different song with its own vibe, and I believe borrowing bits from previous songs is part of a tradition of songwriting going back centuries. I’m not even sure PinkPantheress intends to reference “Everything She Wants” here – there’s some shared words in the lyric, but I think this could easily be one of those things when you internalize a melody and then it emerges in something you make later without you consciously realizing it.

For a personal example, when I was 20 I wrote a song with a topline verse melody I realized a few years later was just a lightly modified (read: dumbed down) version of Stevie Wonder’s “Livin’ for the City.” It happens! And this is where taste comes in – I feel silly about not realizing I was lifting from a very famous song, but pleased that I had the sense to borrow from a genius of melody. And that’s the case for “Snap My Finger” – whether it’s intentional or accidental, it’s ultimately flattering to PinkPantheress’ taste that she ended up with snippet of melody as low-key sophisticated as George Michael at his very best.

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