Did Mick Jagger steal ‘Just Another Night’?
There are some music heads who like to claim that it is becoming impossible to make a truly original song. They argue that a song can’t be made in a vacuum and will always be in some way influenced by other tracks that have come before it or that there are only a certain amount of ways an idea can be phrased in lyrics or translated into chords. These are the arguments brought up time and time again as artists throughout history found themselves in court over copyright claims, with Mick Jagger being among them.
Jagger is no stranger to these cases. In 1997, The Rolling Stones were wrapped up in a legal battle with The Verve over their new track, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, with the veterans claiming that they’d ripped off ‘The Last Time’. For years, the band’s royalties for the track went directly to the Stones instead until the ruling was overturned in 2019.
However, decades before that, in 1986, Jagger was on the opposite side as the accused when he was hit with a lawsuit over one of his solo singles. The track in question was ‘Just Another Night’, a single from his 1985 debut album, She’s The Boss. Upon its release, Jagger had a victorious moment as he sold millions of copies. But soon after, spirits were dampened by the claim that he’d stolen the material.
He was sued for copyright infringement by Patrick Alley, a Jamaican reggae musician who claimed Jagger had pinched from his own track, also titled ‘Just Another Night’. Alley’s was released in 1982, but he wrote the track back in 1979. His is a seven minute long groove-heavy track with the chorus, “Can I spend another, just another night, just another night with you?”
On the flip side, Jagger’s effort is a five-minute-long rock outing that was his attempt to modernise the sounds of the 1980s. For his own chorus, he wails, “Give me just another night, just another night with you” in his well-known blues-twanged vocals.
Side by side, the songs sound absolutely nothing alike. They exist in two completely different genres with totally separate builds and energies. It also feels like the similarities between the lyrics, with the idea of asking a lover for “just another night”, is a rather tedious link as the phrase is said over and over in art but also in life. On the surface, it’s hard to understand how Alley’s claims stood up enough to make it to court, but the issue is in the personnel playing on each track.
The kicker is that the two songs share a drummer. Sly Dunbar is a Jamaican drummer who has a strong portfolio of performances for the great like Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Jagger but also Patrick Alley.
It was Dunbar who tipped Alley off about Jagger’s song, telling him that his track was being “ripped off”. Alley was, obviously, annoyed as he claimed, “After I played it, I realized it was a similar thing … I was very shocked. I looked at the record for some credit of my name, and I didn’t see it.” When the suit was filed, Alley’s attorney said, “It’s the same song … The same words, the same music – it’s obvious.”
Jagger wasn’t going down without a fight, though. In court, he presented early demos of the songs, playing several clips to hear the track slowly taking shape. He also cited the fact that he’d regularly covered the work of other artists and had always credited them, so he had no interest in stealing the work of others. In a less compassionate move, he also said plainly that he wouldn’t rip off Alley’s track as he, quite simply, didn’t like it.
“I think there are a lot of people in this courtroom who don’t particularly like my music, but I personally don’t like that song … It’s rather kind of sentimental,” he said of Alley’s take.
He also had an expert at hand as he roped in Daniel Ricigliano, the chairman of the theory department at the Manhattan School of Music, to help. Ricigliano made the point that since 1931, ‘Just Another Night’ had been used as a song title in at least 12 songs.
So, to answer the question of whether Mick Jagger stole ‘Just Another Night’, the jury would say no. The Stones singer was found not guilty as Alley couldn’t prove that Jagger was even aware of his track. To him, this was all just an attempt by the reggae musician to get some money out of the famous artist rather than a genuine battle for musical integrity.
But still, Alley didn’t drop it. He filed for an appeal but, once again, failed. So even though the stink of the court case has stuck to the song, forever left with a lingering question mark over it, the argument that Jagger stole the track has never been solid enough to win over a judge, and who are we to argue with democracy?
