Originally Posted by longcat:
I don't think she wrote the song. A lot of songs these days use bits of other songs.
Oh, she definitely won't have written it. It's still chosen to suit her "style" though. The whole thing is in fact drenched in Simon Cowell's influence (note the *ahem* "subtle" references to Sony products throughout the video...)
As for songs using parts of other songs: of course they do. It's (generally) illegal without permission, although that's hardly an issue with "Oh My Darling" as it's over a hundred years old and way out of copyrght. (And to be fair, "Oh My Darling" was probably based on another song called "Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden" anyway.)
The problem is that those sorts of songs generally don't adopt a bolshy attitude about being original and not copying others, while themselves copying a very well known tune (and a rather corny one at that)...
To do so makes Cher look rather silly (to put it nicely - some more unkind souls might suggest "hypocritical"). Looking around the forums, it's opened her up to a lot of mocking derision, and even unfair comparisons with Rebecca Black: Rebecca didn't write "Friday" either, but at least it was original.
What I find incredible about the whole thing is the way in which Cher and her people either didn't realize the chorus was copied, or else simply didn't care...