When I first heard Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne, it was love at first listen, even though I had previously despised Avril. Resistance was futile, as the high school bitch attitude and catchy chants drew me in… but there was another reason: the song had a strange familiarity to it, but I knew it wasn’t a cover and couldn’t think of any particular song it sounded like, so I forgot about it and got on with my “Hey! Hey! You! You!”s. This morning I came across an article accusing her of plagiarising a song called I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend by The Rubinoos. I’d never heard that song so thought nothing of it, until I heard it played on Radio 1 this afternoon (they were comparing the two songs, with very conclusive results – they’re almost identical in the chorus) and realised that I did know this song, and couldn’t place it until I Googled the lyrics and learnt the brilliant truth: Avril has ripped off the acest twee-pop band of the 90s, LUSH!
Here you can listen to the super-duper Lush song, and here‘s a comparison of Avril and the Rubinoos.