Lawyers for the founding members of the 1960s band The Turtles allege in a lawsuit filed overnight in Los Angeles that Sony Music owes royalties for sampling the group’s instrumental “Buzz Saw” in a D-Nice rap hit featured in a recent TV spot for Ford’s F-150 truck.
Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman — known as Flo & Eddie of The Turtles — contend that in 1990, Zomba Recording Corp. entered into an agreement with the duo’s company FEI for sampling use of the 1968 R&B instrumental “Buzz Saw” in “Call Me D-Nice,” a track recorded by D-Nice — the stage name of rapper, producer and DJ Derrick Jones.
Part of the agreement allegedly specified that if the D-Nice track — which was a rap hit in 1990 — were to be used in commercials, “the parties agree to negotiate a fee,” according to the suit, which states that Sony assumed the rights to Zomba and the D-Nice recording in 2011.
