Songwriters Lee Oskar, Keri Oskar and Greg Errico are seeking $3 million in damages over claims that infamous, earworm-y harmonica riff in ‘Timber’ is identical the one in their 1978 track ‘San Francisco Bay’.
Both Oskars and Errico say ‘Timber”s harmonica player Paul Harrington was told to “emulate” the sound on ‘San Francisco Bay’ in order to give it an “identical texture and sound”. Whilst Pitbull’s label Sony may have “obtained a license” to use the song, they didn’t seek permission from the songwriters themselves, they add.
Oskar, Oskar and Errico say they haven’t seen a penny of the considerable money ‘Timber’ made – despite the fact that on ‘Timber”s Wikipedia page, it clearly states the track is an interpolation of ‘San Francisco Bay’.