Le Tigre have filed a civil lawsuit to counter cease-and-desist letters sent by Barry Mann, who alleges copyright infringement of his song ‘Who Put the Bomp (Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)’.

Mann, whose 1961 single was written with the late Gerry Goffin, claims that Le Tigre’s 1999 song ‘Deceptacon’ infringes on his work.

Now, Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman have filed a complaint seen by Pitchfork in which they argue that Mann has no claim because ‘Who Put The Bomp…’ is not a wholly original work.

“Mr. Mann did not create these vocables or song titles; rather, it appears that Mr. Mann and his co-writer copied them from Black doo-wop groups active during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Specifically, it appears that Mr. Mann took ‘bomp-bah-bomp-bah-bomp’ from The Marcels’ distinctive version of ‘Blue Moon’, which sold over a million copies, and ‘rama lama ding dong’ from the Edsels’ then-popular ‘Rama Lama Ding Dong.’

“In short, the Bomp lyrics at issue are not original to Mr. Mann, and Defendants have no legitimate copyright claim in them,” reads part of the suit.

Additionally, the lawsuit argues that Le Tigre’s twists on the word “Bomp” qualify as fair use because the lyrics have “a new meaning that is directly at odds with and a clear criticism of the message in ‘Bomp’.”

Le Tigre made their comeback in 2016 with the single ‘I’m With Her’, which was released in support of Hillary Clinton’s US presidential campaign.

There has been no news of a follow up to their last album, 2004’s ‘This Island’.