Don't think the song was ever posted before. Here is the song the Italian court ruled was plagiarized by The Most Beautiful Girl In The World:



An appeals court in Italy has ruled that Prince stole his THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD hit from two European songwriters.
Officials at the Court of Appeal in Rome have decided the 1994 hit borrowed heavily from Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino's Takin' Me to Paradise.

Under the ruling, Prince must stop distributing the song on Italian territory. He also faces having to pay the royalties he has so far accumulated to Bergonzi and Vicino and their publishers, but only if a final hearing confirms the Italian songwriting duo was plagiarised.

Bergonzi was quoted as saying "When we first heard Prince's song we immediately took action, but this case has been dragging on for 15 years and it isn't over yet, such is the slowness of the Italian legal system. We only decided to go public with our story now."

I'll be very surprised if this finishes up in Bergonzi/Vicino's favour. Plagiarism cases are usually won when the musical/stylistic context of the piece in question is the same or not too far removed from that of the song it allegedly pilfers from. Not applicable in this case...

There is some similarity in the chorus melody, but this applies to so many songs...the harmonic material in Prince's song is different and, quite frankly, Prince's song is much better, though the Raynard J. track is agreeable enough in its own cheesy way...

I think they've been chancing it anyway...
[Edited 1/2/10 20:19pm]

Those crazy Italians!

This song reminds me more of "The Warrior" for some reason.

It recalls Spandau Ballet in style and sound to me. I'd give Prince the benefit of the doubt as regards the similar chorus, its quite possible he's never heard this song.

I had to actually listen to the entire Italian song to really hear some similarity. To say that TMBGITW borrows heavily is a stretch for the court. I believe that Prince hasn't always given credit where credit might be due from former proteges or band members but I don't think that Prince would outright steal from this Italian band. Pure coincidence.