songs that sound like other songs

Chromatics "Shadow" and Sonic Youth "Wish Fulfillment" have very similar vocal melodies. First time I heard "Shadow", it took me a minute to figure out it wasn't actually a cover of "Wish Fulfillment".

Lol just heard an Olivia Rodrigo song in a cab and like…. Wasn’t this already a song?? Like 10 years ago?? I genuinely feel like I’m having a psychotic break

— Claire Penis (@ZeroSuitCamus) June 18, 2021

I don't get the insistence some folks have that it's a "Misery Business" rewrite; the resemblance is so mild to me. (I sent it to a big Paramore fan for his pov; he was like - "I guess I hear it a little...")

Lorde - Royals
Paul Young - Love of the Common People

White Trash - Apple Pie
U2 - Mysterious Ways

I like the Lorde/Paul Young one btw. That's an interesting observation.

"misery business" and "good 4 u" are just pop rock songs with a similar chord progression in the chorus? really not very similar at all

oh wow at "wish fulfillment" / "shadow" though, never noticed that before

Another case of “they didn’t really sound that similar to me”: https://pitchfork.com/news/george-michael-estate-gives-lorde-its-blessing-over-solar-power-and-freedom-90-similarities/

low - "fly" / u2 - "moment of surrender"

The opening piano of the Sesame Street theme comes up various early 70's Dark Stars and uh, Big Boss Man, I know I've heard it outside the Grateful Dead too, but I can't remember where: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-WoSyMntfc

For me the opening piano of the Sesame Steet theme sounds like Van Morrison's "Blue Money."

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

the opening piano from sesame street uses a pretty well-established blues piano cliche, can probably find a lot of songs that have that figure

not that close but i realised what low's "monkey" evokes for me is "bullet with butterfly wings"

nice, I thought when this song came up in my ABBA shuffle mix, there using that distinctive bit in Joan Arrmatrading's "Love and Affection" in the chorus. turns out it's a Waterloo deep cut, predating L&A by two years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvVngDm7IG8
ABBA • Gonna Sing You My Love Song

*they’re

and eh, *Armatrading

I always thought Slowdive's Souvlaki Space Station sounded like Art of Noise's Moments in Love.

xps opening piano of Sesame Street is strongly evoked by whichever is the slower jauntier version of "Outta Sight Outta Mind" or "Outta Mind Outta Sight" on Wilco's Being There

my mum recently claimed "like a hurricane" was a rip-off of "ruby tuesday" and i sort of hear it

Westbam feat. Nena - Oldschool Baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7puT1EkWVZM

Bicep - Rever

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

that one guitar riff in tribe’s “dis generation” always reminds me of the intro to jeff buckley's “last goodbye”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0fpWz0wznw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt75y38J00s

It's not just me, right?

opening chord sequence of Breathe's "How Can I Fall" is basically "Purple Rain"

Good catch!

The guitar solo apes it for a second too.

God, I must have heard this song 1000 times in dentist offices or whatever, but I've never known the name of the band or seen the video. The singer dude is wearing the type of vest that my sixth grade girlfriend wore to the spring fling in 1990. Why did we never bring that back?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwZ4erdJZRA

I probably heard it for the last time in 1991 or something, and then one night at karaoke, my friend Mark decided to sing both this and "Hands to Heaven" two weeks apart. both have randomly been on my Spotify since.

now who wants to revive Jack Wagner?

That would be all we need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avHsepGWgZ4

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

"Gone away" by the offspring sounds like "mad world" by tears for fears, it's not at all subtle, i hope they sued.

Are there any Offspring songs that don't sound like other songs?

Hearing The Mission's "Severina" for the first time in about three decades makes me realise it sounds very much like Led Zep's "Achilles' Last Stand" if LZ couldn't play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEbrziO-pxo

Faces - Ooh La La sounds like You Can't Always Get What You Want

Mashup? "You Can't Always Get What I Know Now" "I Wish That I Could Get What I Want" etc

Late to the party, but "Stacy's Mom" and "Just What I Needed." Found some mentions of this from 2004 on other threads
The Cars - C or D/S&D
Pazz, Jop

More connections here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacy%27s_Mom#Music_video

Listening to "This Nation's Saving Grace" for the first, it struck me that "Paintwork" sounded familiar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxT6a0PavTo

Could it be Edwin Birdsong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3AKrwna2C8

low - "laugh" and radiohead - "lucky"

oh wait i mean "the tourist" lol

speaking of 'the tourist':

"Horses" by Sea Oleena

Black Flag - police story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocKObK7QetM

逆鱗 - FISH STORY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGzIOs4jjVk

Dunno if it's been posted, but isn't the bassline of Neil Young/Crazy Horse's "Down By the River" a dead ringer for James Brown's "Cold Sweat"?

posted this on the Charli XCX thread but "good ones"

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

reminds me a lot of Stefy - Chelsea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1RMCuIUB9c

spirit's "looking into darkness" is basically jimmy cliff's "sitting in limbo"

This was clearly written with Katy Perry's "Roar" in mind:

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

This is more 'blimey, they totally lifted that!' but Survivor totally pinched the riff for 'Eye of the Tiger' from Roxy Music's Manifesto.

Tapes 'n' Tapes "Insistor" is Leonard Cohen's "The Future"

It occurs to me that "Venus in Furs" goes really well with "Heart of Gold":

Kiss the boot
Of shiny shiny leather
Keep me searching for a heart of gold

In the long tradition of New Order and The Cure ripping each other off, I realised yesterday that "Crystal" is essentially "A Forest".

"This Time of Night" is also basically "A Forest".

This isn't a full song that sounds like another song, but since you brought up The Cure, one thing that hit me a few years back and I haven't been able to quite shake is that the synth line in Homesick sounds a lot like Led Zeppelin's All of My Love. It comes in slightly earlier, but is most noticeable around 4:00, right after "inspire in me the desire in me to never go home."