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Lighten up everyone. A mistake happened. No one was physically harmed or lost money. One Ring Zero ended up inadvertently performing a cover. No big deal. Che Guevara weekend was not shunned on the original episode and now the song gets some more exposure. It doesn't seem like such a big deal.

As for Jeremy and his son they seem like very nice New Yorkers.

PART TWO

Noah is a highly intelligent, very creative boy with a quirky sense of humor. He has been writing songs forever. Otherwise, it would not have been plausible to us that the lyrics were his. Even so, I felt I did my due diligence when I googled several lines of the lyrics and came up dry. Hindsight is always 20/20 - I think very few people would have done the YouTube search noted above without prior knowledge.

In any case, we apologized to John Schaefer, Jesse Harris and the band for putting them in an uncomfortable situation, however inadvertantly.

Noah, after feeling truly terrible about the situation, has begun to move on. Hopefully the grown ups can do the same.

Jeremy Shatan

PART ONE

Noah's dad here.

First, let me address a few misconceptions. Noah's parents do not work on Wall Street. I raise funds for children's cancer and my wife works from home part time. We are VERY present in our children's lives. We do not complete their homework. I did not alter the lyrics in any way. And despite having watched (and enjoyed) the show several times with my kids, I certainly never saw the episode in question.

When Noah wrote the lyrics, it was at some remove from seeing the show, in a classroom, without a TV. For the record, his teacher thought the lyrics were charming.

Some months after he wrote them, we found them in the work his teacher returned at the end of the year. By that time, he had no recall of the inspiration and - as many seven year olds woud - felt they were his own.

An avid Soundcheck listener, I remembered the lyrics when the contest was announced and decided to enter them. I typed them word for word and the only "cover letter" was to say that my seven-year-old had written them.

PART ONE

Noah's dad here.

First, let me address a few misconceptions. Noah's parents do not work on Wall Street. I raise funds for children's cancer and my wife works from home part time. We are VERY present in our children's lives. We do not complete their homework. I did not alter the lyrics in any way. And despite having watched (and enjoyed) the show several times with my kids, I certainly never saw the episode in question.

When Noah wrote the lyrics, it was at some remove from seeing the show, in a classroom, without a TV. For the record, his teacher thought the lyrics were charming.

Some months after he wrote them, we found them in the work his teacher returned at the end of the year. By that time, he had no recall of the inspiration and - as many seven year olds woud - felt they were his own.

An avid Soundcheck listener, I remembered the lyrics when the contest was announced and decided to enter them. I typed them word for word and the only "cover letter" was to say that my seven-year-old had written them.

I call shenanigans the part of WNYC and the kid's parents. Observe what what happens when you insert one of the kid's supposed verses into a search engine:

http://www.google.com/search?q=I+went+to+the+mall+Saw+an+amazing+thing+Hanging+up+by+the+wall&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Yes, a reference to the original song pops right up. Stop compounding the scandal by exaggerating about how hard it was to find the lyrics, Soundcheck producers. The song was lifted almost verbatim. And yes, the original Cartoon Network version was more fun then that of One Ring Zero.

Why not bring on the original author of the Jeans song?

I didn't make the connection at first between Sam Mastandrea and his stage name. Excellent songwriter. Terrific to hear he's won now.

Clearly, we see who the real winner is here.

Glad One Ring Zero has some taste and a soul.

How embarrassing for both the judge and radio staff for not doing their homework!

Check out Sam Mastandrea's version of his song.
www.myspace.com/livesammo

what surprises me is that despite acknowledging that the kid lifted the lyrics, wnyc has failed to alter or put a notation at the top of this listing (outside of the commentary area)fessing as much.

i DO give kudos to the host for questioning the kid on air after the first round of comments began to roll in. but i find it curious that when asked if the boy "remembered" watching that cartoon program. response? "my memory isn't so good." oh really? clearly it takes a great memory to memorize song lyrics! children that age know the difference between right and wrong. i should know. i've been a nanny for privileged familes for 15 years and am paid to spend time quality with children whose parents do not.

that said i don't think the child is deserving of such wrath. as for the judging? christ! of course the show and judge knew they were monitoring a 7 year old's supposed entry. the father obviously wrote a cover letter to accompany the lyrics. who knows. the dad might have altered the lyrics himself by way of winning entry. i see parents complete their kids' homework very, very frequently.

and yes. i feel sorry for the 398+ other entries. even more so for the second place gentleman and all of the runners up as well as the band who wasted who knows how many hours crafting original music to a hack libretto.

The kid can be forgiven. The parents and the Soundcheck producers are to blame for all the reasons listed above. And you can blame the parents for the kid's ill manners. Why not come full circle and track down the original author of the song? Seems like he/she deserves some kudos. And WNYC, stop trying to save face and admit the song was almost entirely lifted. Denial is so unbecoming.

The child's error is entirely forgivable. That sort of who-wrote-this-really confusion really does happen, particularly to a six year old, which is how old he was when he wrote down the lyrics.
Also, he sounds like a kid who is, yes, a bit bouncy. But also truly musical and interested in lyrics. More power to him.
One thing that interests me: If indeed, these lyrics were lifted from memory of a song on a t.v. show (or inspired by them), the judge for this contest picked lyrics that were written by a professional.
I mean, this really is a good song. Regardless of how old the author really is. The judge for this contest has good judgment.

I'm stunned. Even after this contest is exposed as a farce, the producers cannot acknowledge the full extent of this debacle. I listened to the podcast. I listened to the pants songs off youtube. The kid quoted the song almost verbatim. Yet the WNYC producers can't bring themselves to say that the winning song was completely cribbed. That shows at the very least poor judgment and denial on the part of Soundcheck's producers. Where's the honesty? Where's the integrity? It's an insult to the 400 people who turned in lyrics in good faith!

"even now, with the benefit of hindsight, a google search turns up nothing."

But did you think of searching utube? I typed in cartoon songs about jeans and the song in question came up twice. You could possibly argue that searching with the word "cartoon" in the phrase would be "hindsight," but aren't producers supposed to think about all these possibilities in advance?

". . . no direct quoting . . ." How can you say this? Of course there was. And while "Jason Blair" chose to give this child the benefit of the doubt, I strongly suspect that he copied most of it and changed/added a few "original" lines. Just pathetic!

Get over yourselves #13, 14 and 16 (if you are in fact all different people). It's just a songwriting contest, not major world affairs here. Nobody's losing Wall Street-like sums over this, there's no war or calamity at stake here. Get a life!

The sad thing is that the Cartoon Network version is better than the One Ring Zero version. Ha!

Oh puhleeze! "Modeled" after the original Cartoon Network song? He copied it line for line. Any minor variance at the end was likely transcription error on the kid's part. Shame on you Soundcheck staff for your sloppiness. And shame on the kid's parents. Both for his plagiarism and his ill manners.

Thanks to our listener’s comment above, we now know that our 7-year old songwriter closely modeled his lyrics (written when he was 6) on a song from a Cartoon Network show. While not literally quoting any lines from the original song, he clearly used the story and some phrases from it. Both his parents and Soundcheck tried to verify the originality of the lyrics in advance, but since there was no direct quoting, even now, with the benefit of hindsight, a google search turns up nothing. Only someone familiar with the original song would’ve been able to hear the similarities.

Because the rules of the contest state that the entries must be "original work," we must disqualify “Jeans” as our contest winner. A new winner will be announced next week.

If the kid had submitted that song as homework in school, he'd get punished for it.

I'm sorry. There are a lot of folks seriously devoted to quality songwriting in this city. For a kid to plagiarize a song and win is so offensive. Someone dropped the ball there.

What kind of behavior are we condoning when we allow that to happen? Funny it should happen during the darkest week on Wall Street in years. Greed and the need to get attention seems to be what motivates Americans these days not doing the right thing. And look where greed has gotten us -- in a huge mess.

And just because someone sounds "nice" doesn't mean their actions are nice or acceptable. If WNYC doesn't rectify this joke of a contest, how can we possibly take any of their reporting and shows seriously ever again?

Where are the kid's parents? Obviously absent. Must work on Wall Street. That's enough to turn me off your show for good and Jesse Harris.

He heard it, he liked it, he absorbed it, he thought he wrote it... hey, could happen to any of us. He's a high energy kid who doesn't sound like he has a mean bone in his little body. And his dad sounds nice. Everyone who's thinking mean: lighten up. Let McPalin's people do that.

Sam Mastandrea = "Live Sammo"

An outstanding friend + great performer in his own right who plays a myriad of instruments as well...many of his own crafting.

Thanks for the awesome accompanying tune-age One Ring Zero!

:)

P.S. A pair of pants:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=KJ2&q=talk%20to%20the%20jeans&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#

Epic fail:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=KJ2&q=talk%20to%20the%20jeans&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#

http://fhif.wikia.com/wiki/Bloppy_Pants

So when's the mea culpa coming?

Epic fail:

http://www.imeem.com/reenk/music/X_5dZPsG/pizza_party_talk_to_the_jeans/

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=KJ2&q=talk%20to%20the%20jeans&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#

So when are you guys going to issue your mea culpa?

you guys are mean. give the kid a break.

It's the anxiety of influence playing out before our ears on Soundcheck. Awesome.

This has got to be the most annoying kid ever to appear on radio or tv. Please shut him up. Better yet, just move on to the next segment, otherwise I'm turning the radio off.

What a super annoying kid, sorry John, bad show today.

The 7 year old didn't even WRITE the song? C'mon.

The song by the 7 year old came from the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode called "Schlock Star."

I suspect that the 7-year-old winner of the contest got the song from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends a cartoon series on Cartoon Network.

http://www.cartoonnetwork.lt/tv_shows/fosters/index.html

Look for the Talk To the Jeans download.

Rule! One Ring Zero.