Song of the Year?

OK, so no one's ever gonna mistake the Grammy Awards for an actual merit-based music contest. But when the song of the year -- Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" goes beyond the usual derivative dreck and into total rip-off territory, you have to wonder.

There's no question in my mind that the Song of the Year is actually a rip-off of "Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project. See for yourself. Here's the Lady Antebellum song:

And now "Eye in the Sky". Pay close attention to the chorus, which hits at 3:20:

They're practically interchangeable. I'm just glad LA is giving APP some props. Now how about some songwriting credit?

That got me thinking about who else deserves a Grammy based on this sort of criteria. I offer Elastica's fine 1995 song "Waking Up", for which they were sued by the Stranglers for appropriating the unique guitar riff. Take a listen:

 

How about giving a Grammy to the ultimate rip-off artists -- Milli Vanilli? Oh, nevermind.