songs that sound like other songs

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

Whoa -- the jury just ruled against Katy Perry and the "Dark Horse" songwriting team.

In the damages phase of the trial, the defendants have now been ordered to pay a combined $2.7 million (about 6.5% of the song's revenue).

Here endeth my court reporting.

Alex G - Gretel has almost the same riff as Stone Temple Pilots - Plush

R.E.M.’s “So. Central Rain” sounds like a distant cousin of “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ytoUuO-qvg

Yeah it sounds like they plan to appeal.

Dark Horse ”pingy tone” is more similar to Art of Noise - moments in love imho. That video is great.

The one maresnest posted I mean

R.E.M.’s “So. Central Rain” sounds like a distant cousin of “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

Ha, yes, the opening riffs - arpeggios around open chords. R.E.M. about 15 BPM faster.

For a long time, I've heard "Reaper" as kinda sounding like "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star."

"Driver 8" sounds like "Don't Fear The Reaper."

― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, February 23, 2013 2:53 PM (six years ago)

hmm, I never noticed that before. I feel like they both must descend from Zouzou's 'Puisque tu es revenu'.

― garfield drops some dank n' dirty dubz at 2am (unregistered), Sunday, February 24, 2013 3:58 PM (six years ago)

Huh... teasing out the R.E.M./BÖC nexus.

“Lady Godiva’s Operation”/“Born on the Bayou”

the verse of "rhinestone cowboy" always has me singing "hoist up the john b sail!"

For a long time, I've heard "Reaper" as kinda sounding like "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star."

― timellison, Saturday, August 3, 2019 3:35 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

ooooo otm

l’Arc~En~Ciel "Love Flies" (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEo9v2pkRMQ
(esp the solo starting at 2m37s onward)

Dinosaur Jr. "Water" (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3rh8xlm228

I initially was trying to figure out what Built To Spill song I thought the l'Arc song was ripping off but then I realized that it's almost the same chord progression as the Dinosaur song.

this could be only in my head, but

catherine wheel 'black metallic' and counting crows 'hanginaround'

“Lawman” by Girl Band is the best cover of Pretty Woman.

'Rhinestone Cowboy' = 'Sloop John B'
(Glen Campbell was in the Beach Boys for a short amount of time)

'Money Money Money' = 'The Oompa Loompa Song' from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Oh... we said the first one just upthread

Brownstone - If You Love Me
=
Plaid - Manyme

Camila Cabello - "Cry for Me" and The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "All Along the Watchtower"

On Pavement's "Carrot Rope" (1999) Malkmus sings this little melodic lick on the chorus that goes "explaining that you are worthwhile" that sounds like a direct cop of:

Lilys - "Year Of The Monkey", the part that Kurt sings "I could always look a hypocrite baby... Pay no mind".

Although this could be me exposing my rather embarrassing Beatles/Lennon blind spot... sounds like it could be a Rubber Soul/Revolver nick.

Lilys song is from 1994.

also it's the Carrot Rope PRE-chorus...

Thin Lizzy - Waiting for an Alibi
Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl

Only just this week realized that Talk by Coldplay seemed so familiar somehow because I did already know it as Computer Love by Kraftwerk.