If you put Olivia Dean’s “I’ve Seen It” next to Bill Withers’ classic “Just the Two of Us”, would you hear the same song?
A publisher that controls part of Withers’ catalogue hired a musicologist to investigate, and that finding might shock you!
The complaint claims Dean’s closing track copies “in large and significant part” the melody of the 1981 hit co-written by Withers, Ralph MacDonald and William Salter.
The company says that after listening to “I’ve Seen It” several times in early August, its representatives reached what they called the “obvious and inescapable conclusion” that the song copied a “distinctively protectable melody”. It then hired musicologist Dr Alexander Stewart. According to the filing, Stewart compared the two works, searched for similar prior art, and concluded they contain “substantial similarities in protectable musical expression”, including repeated copying of that melody.
The suit goes further: “The number, character, and arrangement of the similar musical features are so striking that they support an inference that the similarities did not result from coincidence, independent creation, or reliance on common musical elements.”
“Just the Two of Us” was released to radio in 1981 as a Grover Washington Jr. record, with Withers on lead vocal. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Best R&B Song. Mattie argues that because of that success and “decades of radio play”, streaming, and cover versions, Dean and her co-writers had a “reasonable opportunity” to have heard it before writing “I’ve Seen It”.
“I’ve Seen It” closes Dean’s 2025 album The Art of Loving, released by Capitol September 2025. She wrote it with Bastian Langebaek and Max Wolfgang.
The defendants are Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony Publishing and Kobalt Music Publishing America. Dean and her co-writers are not named, and the suit does not seek damages from them. Mattie says it notified the companies on the 17th of August and “Despite receiving notice, defendants continued reproducing, distributing, licensing, publicly performing, and commercially exploiting the infringing work,” the complaint states. It is seeking an injunction, profits tied to the alleged infringement, and legal costs. The other two publishers credited on “Just the Two of Us” have not joined the case.
Dean has not publicly responded to the claim. Speaking to W Magazine last year about the song itself, she said she wrote it after she’d “had a lot of red wine”.
“When I heard it back for the first time, I burst into tears. It felt like the loveliest note to end on. Whether it’s within your friends, your family, or just the love that exists in the strangers around you, it’s there, and it’s inside of you, too.”
So put the two back-to-back. Do you hear what the musicologist heard?
