songs that sound like other songs

I was just listening to 'Copper Blue' by Sugar for the first time in decades and was surprised how similar the chorus of Super Furry Animals' 'Hometown Unicorn' is to the chorus of 'Man On The Moon'.

And of course "If I Can't Change Your Mind" is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

Also, the anthemic melody of Bruce Springsteen's "Badlands" is pretty much just the major key version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by the Animals.

"if i can't change your mind" also reminds me a bit of "if i needed someone"

hmm i don't hear that, which part?

it's not a dead ringer, but the suspended changes in the riffs and the cadence of the melodies have always struck me as similar. the sugar song is obviously faster and multi-tracked to high heaven

I was just listening to 'Copper Blue' by Sugar for the first time in decades and was surprised how similar the chorus of Super Furry Animals' 'Hometown Unicorn' is to the chorus of 'Man On The Moon'.

wow yeah!

Interesting piece on this general topic, in the context of contemporary songwriting (thx to Alfred, who posted another article from the same “series” in another thread):

https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/songwriters-on-song-copying-sampling-interpolation.html

ahah : "The most interesting case was filed by the band Creaky Boards, who said Chris Martin aped their track “The Songs I Didn’t Write.” It was later proved that Martin wrote “Viva” before Creaky Boards released their song, and the group admitted that both tracks were possibly inspired by the video game The Legend of Zelda."

from
https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/song-copying-history-handel-pharrell.html

they mention Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. over the Ghostbusters theme in that article, but I always thought it was a rip-off the Bar-Kays' "Soul Finger"...

No way, that's the most famous one! They used Huey Lewis as a temp track, told Ray Parker to come up with something. He was semi-retired and just kind of crapped it out (I think he was payed $50k?) then was surprised it became a huge hit. But Huey sued and won, with a famously confidential settlement.

still though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16DduIqoRwE

Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls" (both the Budokan & Albini versions) throw in the riff of "Train Kept A Rollin'" before the vox kick in.

(not sure if this is the right thread for that?)

The Pretenders - 2000 Miles (1983)
Rickie Lee Jones - Stewart's Coat (1993)

wow, I love both songs, but never made the connection.

tbh I made the connection while listening to Michelle Branch's cover of "Stewart's Coat". I hadn't even heard the original until just now (is that RLJ album any good?)

wedding present, 'suck'
bailter space, 'robot world'

both grebt of course

'Out By My Side' by Shed Seven is so close to 'Back Street Girl' by The Rolling Stones that I can't believe they avoided what happened to The Verve.

'Weeds' by Pulp vs. 'Are You Experienced?' by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

I was trying to figure out which Stock Aitken Waterman track inspired Pet Shop Boys' 'Was It Worth It?', and I'm guessing it's 'Better the Devil You Know' ...

Opening to Counting Crows "American Girls" sounds a lot like Third Eye Blind's "Ten Days Late"

Dylan definitely modeled “Buckets of Rain” off Fahey’s “Poor Boy Long Ways From Home,” right?

Babyshambles - 'There She Goes' vs. The Cure - 'The Lovecats'

The intro to 'A Certain Romance' by Arctic Monkeys and the main riff of 'The Riverboat Song' by Ocean Colour Scene.

Shoegazers, that no-one cares much about anymore, fighting it out:

Boo Radleys - Lazy Day
https://youtu.be/YSSgUwXJ3ic

vs

Big Troubles - Freudian Slips
https://youtu.be/I_GVd_lkqMs

I think until today I assumed every time I heard any of Senza Una Donna by Zucchero & Paul Young that it was Slave to Love by Bryan Ferry


https://youtu.be/V69vs8JmXYM

https://youtu.be/9kp3N3wQPO0

The horns in Stereolabs “The Free Design” are playing “Dancing Queen”

oh yeah!
List The Direct References of Stereolab

Was just listening to "Sequent C" by Tangerine Dream, and it felt like I had unearthed the original version of "Cliffs" by Aphex Twin (aka, the first track on SAW II)

the choruses to manilow's "mandy" and kate bush's "wuthering heights" are more similar than i would've thought before hearing mandy in a waiting room recently

It's not really a specific song-a-like, but I've always thought Little River Band's "Reminiscing" sounded like a cross between the Bee Gees and Steely Dan.

Tortoise - "The Suspension Bridge at Iguazu Falls" (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KARGMMT-0_8

The Sandals - "The Theme From Endless Summer" (1964)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg4FvOi-N18

mostly the baritone guitar lines but also the melodica

Dirty Vegas - Let The Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMzxYquje5o

the chorus melody (0:35 onward) is virtually identical to the organ-y keyboard riff in MGMT's 'Kids'

What song sounds so much like Wire’s “The 15th”

The Who - "Rael" ("Look toward the shore for my sig-na-a-al")
The Beach Boys - "That's Not Me" ("I could try to be big in the eyes of the wo-o-orld")

“Gone Fishin’” by General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board seems to have exactly the same bassline as The Temptations’ “Just My Imagination.”

I always thought "Can I Get A ..." by Jay-Z sounded like it was sampling "Walking in Your Footsteps" by the Police. I always thought "Hypnotize" by Biggie sounded like "Regiment" from Eno/Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." And I always thought "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child was produced by Timbaland, since it sounds so much like "Are You That Somebody?" by Aaliyah. "Bills Bills Bills" doesn't sound like anything as specific, but it also sounds like a total mimic of Timbaland.

I always thought "Hypnotize" by Biggie sounded like "Regiment" from Eno/Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."

i thought they both sampled "rise" by herb alpert

The first segment of Wilco's "Pieholden Suite" always gets me singing "Surfer Girl." The melody is not THAT close, but that loping vocal rhythm...

there's a whisper I would like to breathe into your ear but I'm too scared to
Do you love me, do you surfer girl

xpost The bass line from "Rise" is directly sampled by Biggie, iirc, but maybe just imitated in the Eno/Byrne. But I think the drums (and some of the atmospherics) of the Biggie track remind me of "Regiment," too.

“Ghost Town” by The Specials has a part that sounds very much like “In Walked Bud” by Thelonious Monk.

Weird, I was just about to post that I've been watching Divorce on HBO, and the main cue drives me crazy because it's clearly the first four bars of In Walked Bud, repeated ad nauseum.

heard a cover band playing "vehicle" from a distance today and it took a little time to establish that they weren't playing "seven nation army"

Hm. Will have to investigate that

katy perry's "roar" and beyonce's "pretty hurts" got p similar chords

Speaking of Perry -- she is currently in court defending the writers of her song "Dark Horse" in a plagiarism case filed by Christian rap artists Marcus Gray aka Flame, Emanuel Lambert aka D.A. Truth, and Chike Ojukwu; they allege that "Dark Horse" copies their track "Joyful Noise":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MllhC0qyEjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSOMA3QBU0

For the curious, here is what an expert witness for the rap artists -- musicologist Todd Decker -- testified on Friday (as reported in Law 360):

For this suit, Decker said he listened to Gray's 2008 song "Joyful Noise" and Perry's 2013 song "Dark Horse" back to back "countless times" before plunking notes out on a piano to try to figure out any similar-sounding patterns between the two songs. He eventually isolated an eight-note melodic phrase beginning with four C-notes and two B-notes that he said seemed to indicate some musical borrowing on the part of Perry's songwriters.

Decker said the melody for both phrases sits on the same note for four beats before descending in pitch. The phrases also have a similar timbre — or distinctive quality of sound — using synthesized sounds to create a "pingy," artificial sound in the beat, Decker explained.

Even the texture of the sound in the phrases, such as the number of instruments being used, is unusually "empty," Decker said, with both introducing their beats in isolation.

Despite the phrases ending with two different notes, Decker said "Dark Horse" uses a similar dip down in pitch to end the ostinato. Decker also noted that even though "Joyful Noise" is written in the key of A and "Dark Horse" is written in B-flat, that's only a difference of a half step.

Update: Dr. Luke and Henry Walter aka Cirkut, two of the Perry songwriters and defendants in this case (along with Max Martin, Sarah Hudson, and others), testified today that they had never heard the "Joyful Noise" track, and detailed the process through which they had created the "Dark Horse" beat. Meanwhile, a security guard confronted a knife-wielding man outside the courthouse, and shot him in one of his hands.

Message To My Girl by Split Enz - Wichita Lineman
The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils by Morrissey sounds like In Every Dream Home A Heartache by Roxy Music