Musician Apologizes for Ad's Similarity to White Stripes Song

The musician responsible for scoring the Air Force Reserve's Super Bowl commercial that sounds similar to the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl" has taken full responsibility for the controversy, absolving the Air Force Reserve of any blame and stating the resemblance between the two songs was pure coincidence. "I'm sorry it sounds the same. It wasn't my intention, truly, truly, truly," composer Kem Kraft told the New York Times, adding that if the White Stripes "want to call me and talk to me, as far as I'm concerned, I'm responsible for this. Just me."

As Rolling Stone reported yesterday, the White Stripes objected to the Air Force Reserve's use of a song that seemed to mirror their White Blood Cells single. The band and their management threatened legal action over the commercial, which was removed from the Air Force Reserve Website once the controversy began to spread.

Kraft told the NYT that he submitted three high-octane pieces of music to the producers of the ad, who told Kraft to "beef it up, make the drums stronger and put on an echo guitar" on the track that eventually wound up in the commercial. Fast Forward Productions' Mike Lee, whose company helmed the ad, insisted he never heard "Fell in Love with a Girl," and told the Times, "I wasn't familiar with the White Stripes song. I've heard of the White Stripes but I'm not a listener of theirs. I had no idea there was similarity until after the fact." In a statement yesterday, the Air Force Reserve reiterated the claim, saying, "There was never any intention to utilize any existing music or to sound like any music by the band White Stripes or any other musical performer. Any similarity or likeness to any other music is completely unintentional."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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