Author: Brian Lukasavitz

While it’s difficult to pinpoint the true origin of the blues, there’s little debate the first “Blues Hit” was Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues”. And with the hit came some of the first music industry lawsuits about hits — a time-honored tradition since the dawn of the music industry!

It is a too common tale that legendary artists have had to wait years or decades to get a fraction of what they’re owed. The story of “The Father of Rock n Roll”; Arthur Big Boy Crudup is the king of those stories.

Exclusive deals are entered all the time in the music industry. They DONT always involve guns and the destruction of an artists’ career who created one of today’s all-time blues standards…

Like many entertainment and IP attorneys, I’ve closely watched the copyright infringement case between the Estate of Marvin Gaye and Robin Thicke/Pharrell Williams over the song “Blurred Lines”.

There was no shortage of controversy surrounding Bessie Smith’s interaction with her record label. Find the fascinating, hidden decades-long fight over the Empress of the Blues’ music, some of the most powerful in blues history.

Any true blues fan is familiar with the Leiber and Stoller hit song “Hound Dog”, but the hidden fights behind the scenes made it one of the most litigated songs of all time! Find the fascinating story here.

Stax Records signed a simple distribution agreement with independent giant Atlantic Records that, unknown to almost anyone at the time, would almost singlehandedly completely destroy the company…

Over the decades, the story of friendship and collaboration between musicologist John Lomax and folk/blues singer-songwriter Lead Belly has reached mythical proportions…

America’s history of censorship of music dates back even further than the First Amendment’s right to Free Speech. Something legendary singer Billie Holiday experienced firsthand…

In one of the longest legal battles in rock history, singer-songwriter and co-founder of Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty found himself defending a lawsuit that seemed like a bar-exam test question.