Who is the only musician to be accused of plagiarizing himself?

In 1993, former Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) singer John Fogerty found himself at the center of a case being argued before the United States Supreme Court. The country’s highest court wasn’t debating whether "Bayou Country" (1969) or "Green River" (1969)was the superior CCR album. Instead, Fogerty was in the middle of an important, somewhat obscure corner of copyright law.

In April 1970, CCR released the Fogerty-penned “Run Through the Jungle”, a single that would eventually be certified gold. “Run Through the Jungle” is called a solid tune, but it didn’t grab headlines until 1985 when Fogerty released a solo track called “The Old Man Down the Road”.

“The Old Man Down the Road” is considered a nice song; it cracked the top 10 on the singles charts. Saul Zaentz wasn’t a fan of the song. He owned CCR’s old label Fantasy Records; he also owned the copyright to “Run Through the Jungle”. Zaentz felt that “The Old Man Down the Road” was simply “Run Through the Jungle” with different words. He said, "John Fogerty plagiarized a John Fogerty song to which he didn’t own the copyright." Zaentz felt he had a case, and sued Fogerty in federal court for copyright infringement. Fogerty was accused of plagiarizing himself.

Fogerty (b. May 1945) is a musician, singer, and songwriter. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty, he founded the band Creedence Clearwater Revival, for which he was the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter.