Ed Sheeran has been defending himself in a New York court against the latest accusations of plagiarism being made against him, this time by the heirs of Ed Townsend, co-writer of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On. They claim similarities between Gaye’s 1973 hit and Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, which he co-wrote with Amy Wadge and was released in 2014.
The case, which was originally filed in 2017, hinges on the ascending I - iii - IV - V chord progression that both songs share (Gaye’s is in the key of Eb; Sheeran’s is in D). The way that the sequence is played is also being considered: in each case, the III and V chords land lightly off the beat.
