songs that sound like other songs

I saw Thief recently, and I guess I assumed that this was Tangerine Dream doing a Floyd pastiche (not for the first time).

Moon Taxi "Hometown Heroes" sounds like "Team" by Lorde.

The first line of Darlings by Susanne Sundfør sounds exactly like the first line of Razzle Dazzle Rose by Camera Obscura.

Guitar solo in Big Log sounds like the melody from Happy Together.

The first line of Darlings by Susanne Sundfør sounds exactly like the first line of Razzle Dazzle Rose by Camera Obscura.

the intro riff from slayer's "seasons in the abyss" sounds like "mo bamba"

close your eyes
look deep in your soul
I got hoeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssss
calling a young ******'s phone

Deftones 'Be Quiet And Drive' sounds like 'Monitor' by Siouxie And The Banshees.

Parts of Robert Wyatt's "Heaps of Sheeps" sound a lot like Blondie's "Heart of Glass"

I also hear a bit of "Shame, Shame, Shame" by Shirley & Company in there

gaelle - repetition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RxOTsUyKtk
janet - empty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9rIjjGmJhM

pointer sisters - "slow hand"
todd rundgren - "real man"

I watched this Slow Hand video, so now it's your turn too: https://vimeo.com/300406625

New Riders of the Purple Sage's "Kick in the Head" sounds like "Polythene Pam". Like, a lot.

Haha, damn.

Not exact match, but LCD Soundsystem's "Someone Great" sounds a bit like New Order's "The Village".

also not exact but the beginning of Lady with the Spinning Head (UV1) by U2 sounds like Everyday Should Be A Holiday by the Dandy Warhols

Animal Collective - Prester John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5iJ9wt4paY

Eloy - Horizons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ocq15y7ajw

The basslines for "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay" and "Have You Seen the Rain" are similar no?? For decades now I'd think there was some other version of Dock that I'd heard before the real one, cause my brain was finishing the pattern in a different way then the song actually goes. Eventually I thought nah it must instead be a deja vú type self-recursion false memory. But I've heard both songs in the past week (which prob has never occurred) and pretty sure that's the link my brain was making all these years.

Violent Femmes, "Blister in the Sun"

The Shadows, "Little 'B'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1GcHOJGGvo

... a track which renders Ginger Baker's entire career pointless.

Only recently found out that the reason Men in Black and Fastlove sound fairly similar is that they both sample Patrice Rushen's Forget Me Nots

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

I may be the last one to know about this intro getting lifted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqp2h65BAs8

Has this one been done before?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsMdy91B5CA

...sounds like "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

Lou Reed's Charley's Girl sounds like John Lennon's Bring on the Lucie

― ewoods, Sunday, April 3, 2016 11:06 AM (five years ago)

I don't know that Lennon song – but I realized today that "Charley's Girl" kinda sounds like "Franklin's Tower" by the Grateful Dead

The Primitives - Lead Me Astray (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhUaNYwLi88

Even As We Speak - Falling Down the Stairs (1993)

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

This may be a stretch – but the Lou Reed song "Ennui" (from Sally Can't Dance) may sort of be a distant cousin to "Like a Rolling Stone"?

Interesting suggestion! "Like a Rolling Stone" was originally done in waltz-time as well, "Ennui" might well have been vaguely inspired by it structurally and harmonically.

Lou Reed's Charley's Girl sounds like John Lennon's Bring on the Lucie
― ewoods, Sunday, April 3, 2016 11:06 AM (five years ago)

I don't know that Lennon song – but I realized today that "Charley's Girl" kinda sounds like "Franklin's Tower" by the Grateful Dead
― Please don’t take / My time change away (morrisp), Thursday, March 31, 2022 6:29 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's a whole thread about that chord progression, but none of those songs were mentioned:

Songs with the Baba O'Riley Chord Progression

...although "Franklin's Tower" might just be a I - IV progression.

Oh, cool – I didn't realize that was the "Baba O'Riley Chord Progression."

i always think of it as the "you ain't seen nothing yet" progression

"Charley's Girl" kinda sounds like "Franklin's Tower"

... and both were arguably rewrites of "Walk On the Wild Side".

Holly came from Miami F-l-a
If you get confused, listen to the music play

Holy shit!:

The main riff of "Franklin's Tower" was partly inspired by the chorus of Lou Reed's 1973 hit "Walk on the Wild Side."[6]

[6]Browne, David (26 April 2016). "So Many Roads: The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead". Da Capo Press – via Google Books.

Strings in Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" sound a lot like Peter Murphy's "Cuts You Up"

Yes, and both songs revolve around a IV - V - vi progression.

"Low Season" by Bob Mould takes its verse melody and chord progression from "Rocket Man".

the teenagers “why do fools fall in love”
the teenagers “who can explain”

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Take It from the Man!

Straight Up and Down - Waiting for the Man + vocal melody from For What It's Worth (e.g., "what a field day for the heat")

Monkey Puzzle - everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey (in vox at beginning) + the chorus vocals of Nirvana's About a Girl (e.g., "I can't see you every night, free")

Mary Please - Hey Joe

Caress - The Last Time

Who? is a kinks song, i think? i can't put my finger on that one, maybe someone can help.

david bowie i love you since i was six - space oddity

just about every song reminds me more than a little of somethin

monkey puzzle also has the cowbell from the beatles song

"The Wild Wild West" TV series Main Theme
"Happy Jack" by The Who

Both repeat the same two-note bass line leading into similar guitar figures.

Today I heard a song in the wild that was new to me (I had to Shazam it): "Why Do I Lie?" by Luscious Jackson. I kept thinking what does this song remind me of. Finally I realized the answer was "Fantasy" by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Youtube commenters are calling it out too!

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

“Garden Party” sounds like “If You Gotta Go, Go Now.”

The Stone Canyon Band covered the latter and there is even a Dylan quote in the former, but I never noticed this until today.

listening to "Trash" by Suede yesterday, i noticed a similarity to Morrissey's "First Of The Gang To Die"

Who? is a kinks song, i think? i can't put my finger on that one, maybe someone can help.

Status Quo, "Pictures of Matchstick Men"?

The Return of the Prince section of Rush's The Necromancer is basically Baba O'Riley.

As performed by Led Zeppelin III.

The Buzzcocks' "Something's Gone Wrong Again" reminds me of a decade-later postpunk (in)version of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog", what with the "dinkdinkdinkdinkdinkdink" piano and the sludgy partway drawn-out guitar notes and the general Neanderthal rhythm. The vocals are a completely different story, though, which just makes the cop more interesting.
― Nate Patrin, Wednesday, September 11, 2002 1:25 AM (nineteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

"All of This and Nothing" is essentially "Something's Gone Wrong Again."

Today I heard a song in the wild that was new to me (I had to Shazam it): "Why Do I Lie?" by Luscious Jackson. I kept thinking what does this song remind me of. Finally I realized the answer was "Fantasy" by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Youtube commenters are calling it out too!

Speaking of Luscious Jackson: I always assumed it was intentional, but "Daughters of the Kaos" = Dawn Penn's "No No No"