journey as one wedding song lyrics and chords

Journey As One – Christian Wedding Song [DnA Official Wedding Song]

• April 28, 2023

Thaddaeus Tean

Video Credits: 📹Video: Gabriel Diong: https://www.instagram.com/gb.real/ 🎙️Singers: Joseph Tean Sabrina Hew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggzo_450JnI&list=PLBd3th-xHrfj2I54lFMztwpxsq3TmEfyl&index=41

Song Credits: 🎵Lyrics & Melody: Sabrina Hew & Thaddaeus Tean 🎹 BG Music: Anndel Lee Jollie : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwwEXaujbz–M9TgFs2KrXg

You can also find me on….. Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ThaddaeusTeanMusic Tiktok – http://tiktok.com/@thaddaeusteanmusic

MINUS ONE (ACCOMPAINIMENT TRACK) is up!!! 🙂 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzAreMn5_Y8

Lyrics: Verse 1: Step by Step, On my road, I asked the Lord, where to go. At times, I did wonder, what He planned to do, His plan was for me, to find you.

Verse 2: So, here I am trusting in God’s plan. As He shapes and He molds me, with His loving hands. With each struggle I face, I know He’ll get me through. He’s preparing me, For this journey with you.

Chorus: So, let’s go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey as one.

Verse 3: Now here we are, starting our new lives. We’re on our road, trusting Him to guide. Hand in hand, and side by side. Serving God, together seems so right.

Chorus: So, let’s go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey, as one.

Chorus: So, let’s go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey, as one.

(music) source

27 thoughts on “ Journey As One – Christian Wedding Song [DnA Official Wedding Song] ”

Hey guys! So, I know a lot of you have been asking for the sheet music of this song for quite awhile now, and Im pleased to announce… THE SHEET MUSIC IS UP! 🙂 It is available here: https://www.mymusicsheet.com/search?keyword=Journey%20as%20one

Hope this will help to make your special day all the more special 🙂 God Bless!

Step by Step, On my road, asked the Lord, where to go. At times, I did wonder, what He planned to do, His plan was for me, to find you. Verse 2: So, here I am trusting in God's plan. As He shapes and He molds me, with His loving hands. With each struggle I face, I know He'll get me through. He's preparing me, For this journey with you. Chorus: So, let's go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey as one.

Now here we are, starting ‹ We're on our road, trusting Him to guide. Hand in hand, and side by s Serving God, together seen Chorus: So, let's go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey, as one. (music) Chorus: So, let's go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey, as one.

Hi, Where can we have po piece neto? 😊

What a beautiful song

Beautiful beautiful beautiful

For me this song will go thus far🥰 One of a piece ✨🎶

could I use this song for my wedding? 🙂

Wow, well done! This is an absolutely beautiful song for a wedding. Getting married next week and this song brought me to tears.

Praise GOD 4this beautiful Wedding Song🙏 ..ONE OF THE BEST I've ever heard in my lifetime!!💖❤ With the beautiful VIOLIN Rendition! I would have chosen this song in my Wedding Ceremony back in June 1981. Yesterday 02/07 My daughter, asked me to listen to it because she's singing it 2 her friend's wedding in 2 weeks. I noticed not a lot people liked 👍and commented now …there're more n more!! 😀❤ Praise GOD for these young ones using their gifts n talents in HIS Service. Blessings in CHRIST🙏❤

I just love this song.I am planning to sing for my 25th wedding anniversary on 6th May 2023 with my husband. Please pray for us both and our family ❤

好美的旋律！謝謝你們的創作☺️

很想用中文歌。可以帮我翻唱中文吗？ 我想在中国唱！

Napakaganda naman 🙂🥰😇🐯

what nationality are you guys? hope u can answer

Would love to dance to this on my wedding. Lovely!!!!! Deep!!! And true!!!

Oh my, simply beautiful! Lovely absolutely lovely ! Do you have a version of only the song so I can play it at our wedding without fear of running over with the words?

I'm here because my friend ask me to search this she's getting married next month. I'm so Happy for you kessie, I love you sis.

I found my wedding song. But i didn't find my better half yet. Hope I will find him soon.

🤌 My God will do everything in right time 💙

Thank you for this song,gagamitin po namin ito sa kasal namin sa March, and ask permission po sana na gamitin naming background music sa E Invitation namin.. So blessed with this song.. God bless writer and aa lahat ng naging part ng song na ito❤️💕🙏🏻

this is beautiful. Praise God for giving you the talent to write this song!

My bestfriend's wedding will be next week and she entrust me to find and sing her entrance song, i haven't found it till today. This is the perfect wedding song ever!!! Knowing what they went through and still go on the journey as one. God bless everyone involve in this song!!

This is gonna be my wedding song on 12/10/22! AMEN!! “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭ 5:22 -31‬ ‭KJV‬‬ AMEN!!!

I love the calm very heartfelt weeding song, more songs to come.God bless.

Excellent script for this song.

Comments are closed.

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Journey As One – Christian Wedding Song [DnA Official Wedding Song]

Detailed, On my roadway, I asked the Lord, where to go. Sometimes, I did wonder, what He prepared to do, His plan was for me, to discover you. So, below I am relying on in God'' s strategy. As He shapes and also He mold and mildews me, with His loving hands. With each struggle I encounter, I understand He'' ll obtain me with. He'' s preparing me, For this trip with you. So, let'' s take place this journey, this journey with God. Let us commend Him together, offering as one. Allow us look towards Heaven, whatever comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey as one. (songs) Currently below we are, beginning our brand-new lives. We'' re on our road, trusting Him to overview. Together, as well as side by side. Serving God, with each other seems so right. So, allow'' s go on this trip, this trip with God. Allow us applaud Him with each other, functioning as one. Allow us look towards Paradise, regardless of what comes, as we take place this trip, on this trip, as one. (songs) So, allow'' s take place this trip, this trip with God.Let us applaud Him together, working as one. Let us look towards Heaven, whatever comes, as we go on this journey, on this trip, as one. (songs) hi, individuals thank you a lot for enjoying this video clip this is in fact um an original track created by me as well as Sabrina we really wrote it for Sabrina'' s sister ' s wedding so uh thank you for helping me create that, and also thank you to Joseph Tean uh for coming on and vocal singing this as well and likewise huge thanks to Gabriel behind the camera for beginning final as well as shooting this video. additionally, big many thanks to anndel for coming on as well as playing the piano for this song I actually value it as well if you guys intend to look into even more of my close friend'' s material I will certainly be leaving numerous web links in the description down below so go and also examine them out um a whole lot of effort entered into this a lot of yeah a whole lot of effort went into this so please uh offer it a like share it with as many individuals as you can and also I will see you individuals when I see you guys

Allow'' s go on this trip, this journey with God. Let'' s go on this journey, this journey with God. (songs) So, let'' s go on this trip, this trip with God.Let us commend Him with each other, offering as one.

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20 Of The Best Journey Wedding Songs for Your Special Day

One of the world’s best-selling bands of all time, Journey has been a major name in the Rock music genre for decades. Since its inception in the early 1970s, the band has had no shortage of chart-dominating hits.

They have also crooned some of the most memorable and enjoyable love songs in the genre. And if you are gunning for some rock flavor on your wedding playlist, what better serenade for all in attendance than the magnificent sounds of Journey? 

In this article, we are going to show you the top 20 journey wedding songs that will bring that musical magic to your event. 

Top Journey Wedding Songs to Try

After over four decades of their career, the Journey crew are still serenading us with their splendid art. As such, some of the songs here will be fairly recent ones. But without further ado, let’s get to the journey songs. 

You will also love these other wedding songs:

• Spanish Father-Daughter Wedding Songs
• Cliche Wedding Songs to Avoid
• Fleetwood Mac Wedding Songs

1. Faithfully

Memorable lyrics: /Restless hearts, sleep alone tonight/ Sendin’ all my love along the wire/ 

Released in 1983 as part of the band’s album ‘Frontiers,’ ‘Faithfully’ is a powerful love song that was a strong couples’ favorite in the 80s. It was written by the band’s keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, who says he did it in a moment of exceptional inspiration. It’s a marvelous song to play for first dances. 

2. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

Memorable lyrics: / Here we stand/ Worlds apart, hearts broken in two, two, two/

The upbeat tempo and pace of this song make it the perfect song to play when you wish to keep the mood lively and celebratory.

What is more, its infectious beats and catchy lyrics make you want to sing along, making it the perfect song to pull out when everyone has had their fill of slow dance songs.  

3.  Don’t Stop Believin’

Memorable lyrics: / Just a small town girl/ Livin’ in a lonely world/ 

‘Don’t Stop Believing’ is one of Journey’s most iconic and beloved songs ever. It’s played at all kinds of events, from birthdays and anniversaries to wedding ceremonies and even bridal showers.

The song’s uncanny knack for getting people to let loose and just have fun makes it perfect for your wedding dance time playlist. 

4. Open Arms

Memorable lyrics: / Softly you whisper/ You’re so sincere/ How could our love be so blind?/ 

Talk about the perfect song for an intermission between dance times. ‘Open Arms’ is a sweeping, gentle rock ballad that is ideal for playing in the background as everyone catches their breaths, chats around, has a drink, and enjoys some special moments with other guests. And afterward, it’s straight back to the dance floor. 

5.  Anyway You Want it

Memorable lyrics: / She loves to move/ She loves to groove/ She loves the lovin’ things/ 

This song is one of the most popular dance numbers by Journey, and it’s loved by music lovers,  both young and old. It’s a lively, dance-worthy song sure to hit the right chords with couples who appreciate humor and are willing not to take themselves too seriously. 

6. Wheel in the Sky

Memorable lyrics: / Haven’t been home in a year or more/ I hope she holds on a little longer/ 

This is one of those songs with such melodies that keep audiences captivated and in the spirit of the moment. It’s the perfect mid-tempo number to keep your guests in a steady, not-too-lively mood—just the right mood for some mingling around between major segments of the event. 

7. Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’

Memorable lyrics: / Lovin’, touchin’, squeezin’ each other/ When I’m alone all by myself/ 

Steve Perry is on the vocals as usual, and the song is simply marvelous. Admittedly, the lyrics of the song don’t lend themselves easily to a wedding environment, and that’s why it’s best tried at a themed wedding, such as a gothic-themed one.

8. Stone in Love

Memorable lyrics: / In the heat with a blue jean girl/ Burning love comes once in a lifetime/ 

If you want to add some charm to your wedding, this edgy, quintessential 80s rock song should definitely be on your playlist. It’s perfect first for dance moments, as it has a proven track record as a body shaker.

It’s also the most splendid song to play while you and your spouse are introduced as a couple for the first time. 

9. When You Love a Woman

Memorable lyrics: / When you love a woman/ You see your world inside her eyes/ 

This 1996 song from Journey best hits album  ‘Trial by Fire’ is one of the most romantic Journey wedding songs ever released. It’s a dreamy track that expresses the elation of finding that special girl that you want to spend your life with.

Its passionate vocals and splendid instrumentals make it a great song for wedding first dances. 

Memorable lyrics: / When the lights go down in the City/ And the sun shines on the bay/ Ooh, I wanna be there in my City, oh/ 

This is another one of those mid-tempo Journey wedding songs that will make a splendid addition to your wedding playlist.

It’s a versatile tune, so you can use it for almost any part of the wedding event; however, it’s particularly ideal for cocktail or mingle periods. Additionally, it’s also a perfect song to play near the close of the wedding, as it’s great for helping guests wind down for the day.  

11. Who’s Crying Now

Memorable lyrics: / The taste of bittersweet/ Love will survive somehow, somewhere/ 

As the title already indicates, this is not a particularly joyous or celebratory love song. However, its deep and heartfelt lyrics reflect upon the love and the enduring longing for a lover, even after they’ve gone their separate ways. It works well as a reflective first dance song. 

12. Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever

Memorable lyrics: /Lost in twilight/ The memories/ Precious moments, you and me/ 

This song is ideal for first dances at a wedding, especially due to its tempo. It’s also potentially one of the most underrated songs by this band, with its great instrumentals and Steve Perry’s fantastic bit at the end.

The song expresses the desire to stay with the one you love and share some more precious memories. 

13. Only the Young

Memorable lyrics: / Shadows of a golden age/ A generation waits for dawn/ Brave carry on/ 

‘Only the Young’ is not a love song, but its upbeat tempo and great lyrics make it splendid for dance time. The lyrics talk about the young coming into their own, with the future open before them and full of promise. It portrays the feeling that two young lovers about to start a life together can relate to. 

14. Message of Love

Memorable lyrics: / Baby can you hear me/ Can you hear me callin’/ Baby can you hear my/ Message of love/ 

This is another timeless number from Journey, released in 1996. The song is the soft rock type, and it’s a song of longing and desire. It has a fast tempo, making it ideal for dance time, and it’s also great for retro-themed weddings. 

15. Happy to Give

Memorable lyrics: / Shadows fall, after the hurt is gone/ Through it all, we love and we lose/ 

Part of the album ‘Raised on a Radio,’ this song has some very deep and reflective lyrics. In addition, its tempo is just the right stuff for a relatively mid-pace dance between bride and groom. The lyrics express the fact that we all deserve to be with someone who loves and adores us. And even though we lose love, we also find it again. 

16. After All These Years

Memorable lyrics: / A faded wedding photograph/ You and me in our first dance/ 

What makes this song so romantic and so good as a wedding song is the perspective from which the lyrics emerge.

The song is from the perspective of a lover who looks back on all the years they have spent with their better half, remarking on the journey so far and marveling at how time has not diminished their bond. 

17. With Your Love

Memorable lyrics: / On this day… To be standing here with you/ There’s no doubt… I know this love is true/ 

This Journey masterpiece exhibits the band’s regular big production size, and it contains marvelous piano melodies and spacey guitar rhythms trickling in the background. The song has such quality that it can be enjoyed by all, regardless of their music preference. 

18. Send Her My Love 

Memorable lyrics: / Send her my love/ Memories remain/ Send her my love/ Roses never fade/ 

This song is simply a musical masterpiece, with its emotionally charged lyrics and touching, rangy vocals.

The song blends the unique Journey vibe that characterizes all the band’s tracks with soothing, slow jam qualities, and that’s why many consider it one of the best songs by Journey. You want to try this song for a memorable first dance.

19. Girl Can’t Help It

Memorable lyrics: / The girl can’t help it, she needs more/ He hasn’t found what he’s lookin’ for/ 

This 1986 Journey song is another timeless number that you can use for a lively dance. Steve Perry pulls off the vocals in a way that only he can, and he delivers the powerful lyrics in a way that makes it hard to resist moving your body to the beat. 

20. Chain Reaction

Memorable lyrics: / I bet you, she’s the one/ Who helped you, come undone/ Those changes/ She put you through/ 

The lyrics of this song render a testimony to how loving someone changes us, for better or worse. The song was released as part of the band’s 1983 album, and it quickly became a radio hit. It’s an upbeat number that will absolutely kill it as a fast-tempo dance song at your wedding.

Journey is one of those iconic bands with a long history of iconic songs, and where wedding music is concerned, they have very great options for you to try out. These are our picks for the best ones out there, but we would also recommend that you explore a bit.

The list of tracks in this band’s discography is extensive, and you will find no shortage of great Journey wedding songs for your event. 

Is the Journey band still together?

The line-up of the band has changed a bit, especially with the exit of Steve Perry, but it’s still making music right now. 

Who are the current members of the band?

The current members of the Journey band are Neal Schon (lead guitarist), Ross Valory (bassist), Jonathan Cain (keyboards and rhythm guitar), Deen Castronovo (drums, percussion), and Arnel Pineda (lead vocals). 

Are non-romantic Journey songs good for use in weddings?

Songs don’t necessarily have to be romantic to be on a wedding playlist, although it’s ideal that they should be. Journey songs like ‘Only the Young’ still work if you play them at specific periods of the event. 

Serena & Dominic are a married couple and parents to 3 wonderful children. They plan weddings, run multiple small businesses, and curate wedding events.

By giving you everything you need to make your dream wedding attainable, you can eliminate stress, get the ‘wedding glow,’ and focus on spending this rocking day with the person you adore. Discover their podcast for more information

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Thaddaeus Tean – Journey As One

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Download Journey As One Mp3 by Thaddaeus Tean Ft. Sabrina Hew & Joseph Tean

Here's a song by the Global prolific  music artiste  and talented singer “ Thaddaeus Tean “. This  song  is titled “ Journey As One ” featuring Sabrina Hew & Joseph Tean , as it was released alongside its video. You'll be  blessed as you listen.

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Lyrics: Journey As One by Thaddaeus Tean

Verse 1: Step by Step, On my road, I asked the Lord, where to go. At times, I did wonder, what He planned to do, His plan was for me, to find you.

Verse 2: So, here I am trusting in God's plan. As He shapes and He molds me, with His loving hands. With each struggle I face, I know He'll get me through. He's preparing me, For this journey with you.

Chorus: So, let's go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey as one.

Verse 3: Now here we are, starting our new lives. We're on our road, trusting Him to guide. Hand in hand, and side by side. Serving God, together seems so right.

Chorus: So, let's go on this journey, this journey with God. Let us praise Him together, serving as one. Let us look towards Heaven, no matter what comes, as we go on this journey, on this journey, as one.

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Last year, a jury considered whether Ed Sheeran had copied Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get It On.”

But the courtroom didn’t hear Gaye’s sensuously sung original recording:

Instead, the jury was played a bare, electronically recreated track with a robotic voice:

It brought up a curious question …

Supported by

What Is a Song?

Is it simply the music flowing out of your earphones? According to the law, the answer is a bit more complicated.

By Ben Sisario

Ben Sisario has been covering music and copyright for more than a decade, including trials involving Ed Sheeran, Led Zeppelin and the song “Blurred Lines.”

For most music fans, a song is a simple thing to define: It’s the melodies, the lyrics, the grooves that come out of your speakers.

It’s a much thornier question when it comes to copyright law, one that has been tested in a series of high-profile lawsuits over the last decade, involving stars like Ed Sheeran, Led Zeppelin, Pharrell and Robin Thicke. Is songwriting defined by what you hear on a recording, or the notes inked long ago on a piece of sheet music? Where does a composer’s work end, and a performing artist’s begin?

In other words, what, exactly, is a song, in the eyes of the law?

In many music copyright disputes, one of the main issues is originality, or how the law sets a boundary between creative expression that is the property of a single artist versus material in the public domain. Last year, a federal jury in New York heard hours of expert testimony about whether a syncopated four-chord sequence in Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” was distinctive enough that Sheeran’s song “Thinking Out Loud” infringed on it — or whether, as Sheeran’s lawyers contended, those parts are generic “building blocks” that no musician can own. The jury ruled in Sheeran’s favor , finding that he and a co-writer had created their song independently and not copied from Gaye’s 1973 classic.

But a key question running through that trial was about something even more fundamental: whether the core of “Let’s Get It On” — and what is protected by its copyright — is determined by the sounds we hear on its original recording, or the notes written on yellowing sheet music stored at the Library of Congress.

That issue was at the center of an appeals court’s decision four years ago regarding Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and it is being considered in another appeal related to Sheeran and “Let’s Get It On.” Many experts believe it’s an underexplored question that gets to the heart of how copyright law intersects with music.

“This is the deep, existential, metaphysical question at the center of music copyright: We don’t even know what it is,” said Jennifer Jenkins, a law professor at Duke.

It is also an important question for an industry that in recent years has poured billions of dollars into deals for song catalogs, partly on the faith that their underlying copyrights offer robust protection against infringement. That may be challenging for older songs, because of a quirk in the law that can restrict how a song is defined and, therefore, just what its author owns.

How does a song get copyright protection?

There is a key date related to this issue: Jan. 1, 1978, when the last major revision of United States copyright law took effect.

Since then, songwriters have been able to register a composition with the Copyright Office by submitting a recording; all the melodies, chords and lyrics on it are considered evidence of their work. But earlier songs were subject to the Copyright Act of 1909, which required that songwriters submit transcribed sheet music, known as deposit copies.

For a century, these deposit copies were little more than receipts in a copyright paper trail. But since the “Blurred Lines” case a decade ago, when Pharrell and Thicke were found to have copied Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” and ordered to pay more than $5 million in damages, these once-obscure documents have taken on a greater significance.

The judge in that case ruled that, under the 1909 law, the deposit copy for “Got to Give It Up” (1977) determined the “scope” of that song’s copyright. In other words, only the notes on its paper submission counted as representing Gaye’s songwriting creation, and any other elements that were on the song’s recording but not the deposit copy — like percussion and studio atmospherics — were not part of the underlying composition. (A separate copyright applies to the recording.) The jury, instructed to consider only what was on Gaye’s deposit copy, found that “Blurred Lines” had copied from it.

These deposit copies can be minimal, sometimes featuring just a vocal melody and indications of chords. The one for “Taurus,” a 1967 piece by the psychedelic rock band Spirit, which Led Zeppelin was accused of copying on “Stairway to Heaven,” is a single-page sketch of barely 100 notes, and a lawyer representing Michael Skidmore, a trustee of the trust that owns rights to “Taurus,” argued that it was not even an accurate transcription.

The deposit copy for “Let’s Get It On” is five pages but omits elements like piano, drums and guitar — including the wah-wah opening guitar lick that has been a Pavlovian call to the dance floor at many a wedding — that are part of the signature sound of Gaye’s original track.

The judge overseeing Sheeran’s trial, citing an appeals court’s detailed decision in the Led Zeppelin case, ruled that the absence of those elements from the “Let’s Get It On” deposit copy meant that lawyers for the plaintiffs — family members of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer and producer — had to restrict their arguments to the vocal melody and the chord pattern. That restriction likewise applied to Alexander Stewart, a music professor at the University of Vermont, who testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs.

“Every time I opened my mouth and said the word ‘bass line,’ I was cut off,” Stewart said in an interview. “It was hard to make any cogent argument.”

Following a ruling by the judge, Gaye’s recording was never played for jurors. Instead, they heard an electronic realization of the deposit copy, submitted by the defense. It included bare piano chords and a robotic-sounding vocal — an oddly cold interpretation of one of pop music’s supreme erotic anthems. As the track played, quizzical expressions came over a few jurors’ faces.

Some scholars say the legal distinction between a composition in a deposit copy and what appears in a finished recording is a sign that the law has not kept up with how pop music has been made for decades. Very often, songs are created in the recording studio, and the line between composing, producing and performing can be fuzzy.

“It is completely divorced from actual music-making practice,” said Joseph P. Fishman, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School.

Jenkins, of Duke, said these cases point to one of the basic complexities of applying copyright — a concept originally made for books and other written material — to music.

“Music is first and foremost an auditory art form, but for most of copyright’s history it’s been defined as something you see,” Jenkins said. “There’s this disconnect, where the signifier — that written thing — is what a composer owns, but the signified is what the song actually is. It’s what we’re listening to.”

Is a whole song on the sheet music?

Exactly why deposit copies have gone from obscure legal formalities to hot topics in some of the biggest music lawsuits of the last decade is unclear. One theory is that historically, most accusations of infringement have involved the most prominent elements of a song, like the hook, vocal melody or lyrics — things that even the plainest sheet music would highlight.

But as pop music has evolved, and techniques like sampling have become standard, it has also become more common for background elements and secondary parts to be in dispute. Many recent cases, like those over “Blurred Lines” and Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” have focused on these aspects. (To some observers, the “Blurred Lines” verdict seemed to give the Gaye estate control over a loose rhythmic groove , though lawyers argued that it involved specific notes on a deposit copy.)

David Pullman, an investor whose company Structured Asset Sales is bringing the Sheeran appeal — he is best known for creating “Bowie bonds,” backed by David Bowie’s music royalties, in the 1990s — said he believes that many current artists borrow too much from popular old songs. “It’s easier to take a shortcut and infringe,” Pullman said in an interview, “than write a song that’s original.”

The history of the Sheeran case, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, is complex. Structured Asset Sales, which owns an 11.11 percent interest in “Let’s Get It On,” filed its own suit over “Thinking Out Loud” after a judge blocked the company from joining the Townsend family’s original action.

Structured Asset Sales’ suit was dismissed by a district court judge shortly after Sheeran won at trial last year. In its appeal, the company argues that a deposit copy does not necessarily define the scope of a song’s copyright under the 1909 law, and that the material on the sheet music only needs to be sufficient to identify it, despite the law’s reference to a “complete” copy. In court papers, Hillel I. Parness, a lawyer for the company, argued that expert witnesses should be able to interpret deposit copies for the jury, as happened at a trial involving the singer Michael Bolton in 1994.

Sheeran’s lawyers argue that the deposit copy rule is clear from the law, and is supported by longstanding guidance from the Copyright Office. At oral arguments last month, Donald S. Zakarin, a lawyer for Sheeran, also warned that straying from a deposit copy’s notation could lead to problems of “subjectivity” when defining a musical work that is in dispute.

“Future authors,” Zakarin said, “are going to be subjected to, ‘No, no, no, I intended to have that bass line. I know it’s not there, but I intended it.’”

In an informal survey of about a dozen intellectual-property experts, most said Sheeran’s side had the stronger argument about deposit copies under the 1909 law. “It’s a lousy rule,” said Fishman. “But that does seem to have been the rule at the time.”

But this rule, as set down in the Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin appeal, has at least one prominent skeptic in Paul Goldstein, a professor at Stanford Law School who is the author of a widely cited copyright treatise.

“Where I disagree with Skidmore,” Goldstein wrote in an email, “is in its assertion that the fact the copyright was secured by deposit of a copy of the musical work implies that the deposit copy defines the scope of copyright in the work to the exclusion of any other relevant evidence.” That evidence, he said, could include things like drafts and correspondence around a song’s creation.

Goldstein pointed to another possible source of evidence: sound recordings submitted to the Copyright Office as a supplemental registration. Under that theory, a songwriter with a deficient deposit copy of an old song could, since 1978, submit a recording of it to cover any additional elements — bass lines or guitar solos, for example — absent from the original registration.

This workaround was suggested by the Copyright Office and the Justice Department in an amicus brief filed in the Led Zeppelin appeal. It was apparently little known at the time, though Structured Asset Sales’ court papers note that in 1988, the music publisher for the Rolling Stones’ song “Sympathy for the Devil” submitted that track’s 1968 studio recording to cover a new “arrangement.”

Pullman, of Structured Asset Sales, said that discussion of this workaround during the Led Zeppelin appeal led him to submit the recording of “Let’s Get It On” as a new registration in 2020, to cover any compositional elements not on the deposit copy — which could be more ammunition in a dispute against Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.”

Could it work? So far that issue has not been tested by the courts.

Credits: Rob Verhorst/Redferns, via Getty Images (Marvin Gaye photograph); Let’s Get It On: written by Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend; Taurus: written by Randy Wolfe, a.k.a. Randy California (music sheets)

Produced by Alicia DeSantis , Sean Catangui , Jolie Ruben , Josephine Sedgwick and Tala Safie .

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

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