Marv Gaye fay claims Rob Thicke stole songs, has 'fixatn' on late sger

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Blurred L" was a breezy, upbeat h that beme the biggt song of 2013. Nearly two years later, the urt se spawned has once aga changed the fortun of s creators, Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams, who were brand as pyright gers by a jury on Tuday. Marv Gaye's fay was award nearly $7.4 ln a cisn that will be on the mds of mic executiv and lawyers for years to e. The trial provid an si look at how today's mic is crafted, marketed and sold — and n be picked apart a feral urtroom. As jurors heard before startg liberatns last week, "Blurred L" was a bright spot a year when overall mic sal dropped four percent. Tuday's verdict clouds s legacy and s future, and prents new challeng for the beleaguered mic dtry. Ttimony and trial exhibs helped re-wre the story of "Blurred L." ___ THE NIGHT "BLURRED LINES" WAS BORN It was a by mid-June night for Pharrell at Glenwood Studs Burbank. In one stud, the h-makg producer was workg wh Miley Cys, and another, he was llaboratg wh rapper Earl's Sweatshirt. A third stud had been booked to rerd a song wh Thicke. Pharrell's memory of the events by his own admissn isn't perfect, but he rells gog to a stud and begng a procs he lls "surfg around" — lookg for chords that will form his latt h. He sat down at a dm set and started playg. Bluegrass was on his md bee of his work that day wh Cys. In an hour or ls, Pharrell said he had the mic to "Blurred L." When Thicke arrived, the pair pretend to be old men yellg at women, and those tlls beme a major element of the song. They started rerdg. "We were boppg and dancg," Pharrell said last week urt. "It was a ol night." ___ SELLING "BLURRED LINES" "We have to show the world why the mic is good," marketg executive Nile Bilzerian told jurors recently while explag how "Blurred L" was sold after was released March 2013. For "Blurred L," the song's mic vio drove s populary. Two versns were rerd, one featurg nu mols dancg wh the sgers. That unrated vio got banned by YouTube, which Bilzerian said "ed more of a buzz." The two versns have been viewed hundreds of lns of tim. The song's populary led to endorsements, wh both Beats and RadShack g ad mpaigns. Not surprisgly, viewers of the "Blurred L" vio were overwhelmgly male — 88 percent for the unrated versn acrdg to an analysis prented to jurors by an expert. The more people that watched and discsed the vio, the more the song sold. By May, Thicke and Pharrell were dog equent terviews about the song. Many had already drawn a nnectn between "Blurred L" and Gaye's 1977 h, "Got to Give It Up." ___ PROBLEMATIC WORDS Thicke repeatedly mentned terviews that "Got to Give It Up," one of his favore songs, was an spiratn for "Blurred L." He told terviewers he liked the song so much, he told Pharrell he wanted to rerd somethg siar. Stg on many of the terviews was an Interspe Rerds reprentative. Bilzerian said the label, which arranged hundreds of promotnal events for the song cludg appearanc on "The Ellen DeGener Show," the "Today" show and Howard Stern's show, didn't tell Thicke what to do or say. That exposure helped propel "Blurred L" to the top of the charts 80 untri, sellg more than 14 ln pi worldwi and 7.3 ln pi the Uned Stat alone. Marketg efforts st around $3 ln. Everyone volved, except Gaye's fay, ma money. Pharrell and Thicke pocketed more than $7 ln apiece profs om the song. Thicke's quot would e back to hnt him after Gaye's fay filed su. Thicke's fense of himself was unflatterg — he ttified he was dnk and high on dgs durg many of the terviews and misspoke about nversatns wh Pharrell. ___ THE TRIAL On Feb. 24, the sgers and Gaye's fay assembled for a trial that would terme whether "Blurred L" pied Gaye's mic. Eight jurors were picked, and the trial rumed the next day wh Thicke ttifyg and g a keyboard to play parts of songs om The Beatl, U2 and other artists to monstrate how siar not appear different mic. Williams ttified the followg week, and sat stone-faced the next day as Gaye fay attorney Richard Bch lled him and Thicke liars durg closg arguments. Thicke sed as Bch lled him nam. "Keep md at all tim," Bch told the jury, "the people are profsnal performers." Howard Kg, lead attorney for Pharrell and Thicke, played a versn of "Got to Give It Up" rerd om his sheet mic, then played "Blurred L." "If my clients were nng this se, I would thank you and s down. The songs are not the same," Kg said. He did not perform the proverbial "mic drop" but ntued speakg for several more mut, attackg the Gay' mic experts and tellg the panel he wouldn't discs damag bee he didn't thk they would be an issue. Damag did e up liberatns, and quickly, as revealed by a qutn the panel posed to a judge. On Tuday, the verdict was . Gaye's fay sat nervoly the igid urtroom. Thicke and Pharrell weren't prent. As a urt clerk read damage figur that would total nearly $7.4 ln, Gaye's dghter Nona wept. ___ AFTERMATH Gaye's fay will seek an junctn agast "Blurred L," which will give them negotiatg clout to get a bigger slice of future profs and possibly a songwrg cred for the late sger. The verdict will likely have a lastg impact on the mic dtry, wh many predictg that rerd labels will bee more nservative about releasg songs that sound siar to other works. The se uld be subject to years of motns and appeals, leavg the issue of mil homag murky legal waters for the near future. Dpe all, "Blurred L" isn't gog away, said Joe Levy, edor-at-large at Billboard. "People aren't gog to stop playg ," he said. "It's not jt gog to disappear." ___ Anthony McCartney n be reached at