Rock band The Romantics is suing Activision over claims that the cover of their tune What I Like About You that features in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80s sounds too much like them.

Despite sounding like some joke straight out of Spinal Tap, this is actually happening in real life!

Billboard reports that the suit, filed last Tuesday in the federal District Court in Detroit, claims that the ‘as made famous by’ recording of What I Like About You improperly imitates the band's sound, developed since 1979 and that the song is ''virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version''.

Sorry, SPOnG seems to have missed an important meeting here, but what else is a cover version of a song supposed to do?

The recording, claims the band, confuses consumers into believing that they were the ones that recorded the music and endorsed the product.

The suit lists as plaintiffs The Romantics, aka Master Beat, Wally Palmar, Mike Skill and Coz Anler and as defendants lists Activision, Harmonix Music Systems and RedOctane as developers, publishers or distributors of Guitar Hero, along with Wavegroup Sound as performers of the music.

The band members want to see the companies listed above provide an accounting of all profits made from the game and they want compensatory and punitive damages in an unspecified amount.

SPOnG has spoken to Activision’s UK office this morning and we should have the official line from the company on this matter later today.

^{Source: Billboard}