A U.S. judge has rejected Ed Sheeran’s call for a legal case accusing him of copying parts of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” to be dropped.

In his decision released Thursday, District Judge Louis Stanton said a jury should decide.

He said he found “substantial similarities between several of the two works’ musical elements.”

Sheeran denies ripping off sections of the 1973 classic for his number one hit “Thinking Out Loud.”

The action has been brought against Sheeran, Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Atlantic Records by the estate and heirs of the late producer Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye.

Judge Stanton said the similarities between the two songs included their bass lines and percussion and said listeners might consider the songs’ “aesthetic appeal” to be similar.

Sheeran’s defense team has argued that “Thinking Out Loud” is different because it has “sombre, melancholic tones, addressing long lasting romantic love” while “Let’s Get It On” is characterized as a “sexual anthem.”

(SD-Agencies)