Rod Stewart wrote in his 2012 autobiography, Rod: The Autobiography, that he "unconsciously plagiarized" the melody from Brazilian singer Jorge Ben's 1976 song "Taj Mahal" for use in his 1979 hit "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Ben sued and the case was settled out of court.
But now, Stewart is singing a different tune, telling The Times of London that he "nicked it.” He justifies it by adding that after Ben sued him he "never earned a penny out of it [and] all the royalties went to UNICEF.”
And that's not all. Stewart also consciously lifted the song's signature synthesizer riff from the string arrangement on Bobby Womack's "(If You Want My Love) Put Something Down on It."
Ironically, he says it's perfectly okay to lift a line from any song's arrangement as long as the core melody line is not copied.
Meanwhile, Jim Cregan, Stewart's guitarist on "Sexy," said it was "inspired in part" by The Rolling Stones' "Miss You." And the late keyboardist Ian McLagan, Stewart's bandmate in the Faces who played electric piano on "Miss You," said, "It's a rip-off of 'Miss You.'"
The melodies are very similar.