songs that sound like other songs

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"

Due to the recent poll on 'Angel In The Morning' and a friend's recent karaoke performance of 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' I can't stop one going into the other.

Just found out while playing guitar that the chorus of 'Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover' has similar chords to that of 'Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye'

I have a suspicion that "We Don't Talk About Bruno" sounds like "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5 - the "tap on my window, knock on my door" bit - but to check that I would have to listen to "She Will Be Loved" and it's not worth it.

When I came across Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" on the radio this morning I thought it was Public Image Limited's "Rise" for a second.

First 30 seconds of the new Suede song "She Still Leads Me On" sounds vaguely like a band trying to work out a cover of Joy Divison/N.O.'s "Ceremony."

I had that same realization about Tom Petty just the other day! I had put on his greatest hits for the first time in 30 years or something.

Does anyone else think Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey" sounds like the chorus to Yazoo's "Too Pieces"?

Don Everly in 1971 sure sounds like he's channeling Ray Davies in 1971, though this has got to be more about two guys just outside the center of pop in 1971 channeling the zeitgeist of 1971.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeEELelSHe4

The Everlys were probably more popular in the UK at the time, and had recorded a bunch of songs by the Hollies - it wouldn't surprise me if they were listening to the Kinks as well. Though it's curious that the Kinks had more country in their sound at this point than (one of) the Everly Brothers, if this song is any indication.

The Cure's "Hot Hot Hot!!!" sounds like Simon trying to play the bassline from Chic's "Good Times"

Someone in the comments of Neu!'s "Hallogallo" pointed out that it sounded like "Jump Into the Fire" by Harry Nilsson, which was released the year before. I remember thinking "no that is not true", until I heard the Harry Nilsson track, and then I thought "perhaps it is true":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfjNpgZ4C5Q

With lead guitar by Chris Spedding, Klaus Voormann. I wonder if they both inspired by a common ancestor? They're not identical, but it really does sound as if Neu! was trying to make something in the spirit of the Nilsson song.

Nilsson Schmillson came out a month before they recorded the first Neu! album, but they had played with Kraftwerk, so the idea of jamming on a single chord wasn't alien to them. The building blocks are so elemental that it's hard to say, but Dinger's drum fills and patterns are pretty similar.
On the other hand, I'm quizzically imagining two German hippies buying a Nilsson record and immediately recording a 10 minute long pastiche to open their debut album.

That's so cool, I have known Nilsson Schmilsson since early childhood and Neu! for 20 years but I never realised.

The intro to "Tema d'Amore" from the film, "The Red Tent", by Ennio Morricone always reminds me of the intro to "Some Velvet Morning" by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzfhJNTG-8k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SFghxk6Bms

Good one. Interestingly close chronologically too.

I never would have connected Jump into the Fire with Neu! because of the main guitar riff and vocals plant it so firmly in RAWK, but yeah! The production and vibe of the rhythm playing is spot on.

i'm a sucker for a near rip-off, especially coming from an artist that had enormous success in a previous era and is trying their best to maintain relevance in a new landscape. the everly brothers have more than a few of these, but here's a particularly good one imo: a take on the young rascals' "good lovin'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yu9PMzlS0M

^ from 1967 i should have mentioned

I had "Qué Te Pedí" by La Lupe running through my head and it started to morph into Barbra Streisand's version of "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" which was when I first noticed the similarity of the two songs, at least in the way they start off (i.e. their vocal hook):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3weAOwmKZXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPgjT0E7qWk

Patti Smith's "People Have the Power" and Shriekback's "Nemesis"

"Stay Stay Stay" by Taylor Swift sounds like "Born to Run"

just heard Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 for the first time today, and i strongly believe that the beginning of their song "Nobel Experiment" is sampled in Sparklehorse's "It's a Wonderful Life"

nirvana, Been a Son and On a Plain

"As It Was" by Harry Styles owes a lot to "California" by Delta Spirit

Little Feat - Willin' & Pink Floyd - Fearless

...and it blows my mind.

I can't prove it, but Moody Blues' "Timothy Leary's Dead" sounds like "If I Need Someone" by thebeatles.

pp, can confirm... mind blown again.