“Christmas Wrapping” Songwriter Is A Huge Olivia Rodrigo Fan And Says Her New Single Is An “Homage,” Not A Ripoff

On Thurday (Nov. 5), Olivia Rodrigo released her first-ever Christmas song "take me home (4 christmas)," which immediately drew comparisons to the Waitresses' 1981 classic "Christmas Wrapping." The band's Christopher Butler made a post stating that the pop star had reached out to him in advance and they met at Rodrigo's Unraveled Tour in Columbus (which Stereogum reviewed) just last week. As many are jumping to accuse Rodrigo of plagiarism, Butler is doing his best to quell the backlash."Thank you all for the comparisons to 'Christmas Wrapping,'" he wrote in the YouTube comments. "The vibe is there, but no plagiarism." He also agreed with another commenter who referred to the song as an "homage" rather than a ripoff. In his original Facebook post, Butler explained what went down before the release of "take me home (4 christmas)":BACKSTORY: About two months ago, I received a weird email from someone claiming to be “Olivia Rodrigo”. It was filled w/ Waitresses gush, and just had to be fake. Said she’d written a Christmas song, and invited me to hear it.?????I didn’t know who OR was, so I did a deep dig. Wow…what a career.So, I wrote back:<Um...Er...Well. If you really are you, tha...