Neworder* – Run 2

I listened to both songs and could never made a direct connection between the two songs. Finally, I had a friend whose husband won a grammy and she is a music instructor. Here is what she shared with me. The track times maybe 1 or 2 seconds off depending on your release. This is based on RUN and Run2.
35 sec. mark - "All my bags are packed" ....... only that portion "I'm ready to go" - Not Included.
37 sec. mark - "I'm standing here"............. only that portion "Outside your door" - Not included
43 sec. mark - "I hate to wake you up to say goodbye." The end note is different at "goodbye."
She also told me that John Denver would not have been able to sue had the "wake you up to say" not been so similar. She said JD did something uncommon within those notes and Peter Hook did the exact same thing.
In her opinion, if New Order tried to defend themselves in court, they probably would have lost and Factory records would have declared bankruptcy years prior than they did.

I believe this was totally unintentional. During his younger days in the late 60's or 70's, Hooky probably heard the song a few times and it entered into his subconscious. I' doubt he was listening to "Leaving" during the album recording.

Fun Fact: The Mama's and the Papa's were the first to release this song (JD getting writing credit) it went to #1 in the US and many other places. When JD released the song a year later, it was basically a flop in the US.

If you are going to try and sing during "Leaving" during the "Run" Riff, I sing the unused lyrics to help keep timing.
I hope at least one person found this helpful.

Since the lawsuits are over, I wish Bernard would sing a little bit of "Leaving" when playing Run in Concert. I think the audience would love it.

I just read - and listened to John Denver as "his publisher took action against the band, claiming that part of the tune resembled "Leaving On A Jet Plane". With all due respect, even if there are similarities JD could never reach the level of perfection that NO did - you certainly didn't bother to have Peter Hook on bass, so what could you have been thinking when you ripped all those folksy 60's people off? Granted, this 12" wasn't as good as the album version.
But JD/publ - you could seek further claims - ever heard of New Order - Jetstream ? Chemtrails right back at ya!

The John Denver estate has 25% publishing on 'Run', as listed on the PRS site.

According to Wikipedia, John Denver sued New Order because he felt "Run" sounded too much like "Leaving On A Jet Plane" so it's out of print with only 20 000 copies being shipped.

MTO stands for "Much Too Old", which is a medley of New Order songs that Mike Wilson made a tribute for the band.