songs that sound like other songs

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.

I have recently gotten a case of the Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock fever. i'm still working my way through the thread, and through much of the catalog as well. i have to say, it was an absolute _delight_, earlier, to be listening to the Egyptians 1996 Greatest Hits comp, hearing many of the songs for the first time, especially toward the back half, and then hearing Michael Stipe on "She Doesn't Exist", and loving the song even before realizing it was him or believing it. I wondered if it was Mills for a minute, but then it was clearly Stipe, and it's interesting because the way he sings on that song, from 1991, seems like it prefigures a shift in how he would sing with REM in the mid-to-late 90s. it almost sounds like the the way he would sing a song on Up or Reveal or parts of New Adventures, I mean. hard to explain, but it was just so excellent to hear his voice out of nowhere (along with Peter Buck's playing. damn they were on a roll back then)

i also have some other thoughts but i want to read the thread first. hitchcock's lyrics. i mean, i'll say this, you notice them. i mean, i know RH has the reputation of being "weird" but i am hoping i don't get to the mid-2010s part of the thread and find that he straight up murdered people, lol *grimace*

shit, wrong thread!

but hey everyone i have a fever

nirvana, Been a Son and On a Plain

was looking into brian setzer today. was nagging me where i'd "heard" his hit with the stray cats ("rock this town"), and sure enough ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXOf3tftKr0

Just heard Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” in the local supermarket. Walked out humming the title line, only for it to morph into the opening “Da da da, da da dumb dumb da” from The Beatles’ “From Me To You”.

Altered Images' "Happy Birthday" sounds a lot like one of the 45 84 89–era Fall songs to me (maybe "Oh! Brother"?). Even down to the way she sings the verses...

The chord progression to Cat Power’s Metal Heart sounds exactly like Drive By Truckers’ Goddamn Lonely Love…not only does it use the same chords (I think), but the actual sound of the way they’re played/recorded is almost exactly the same.

Just heard Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” in the local supermarket. Walked out humming the title line, only for it to morph into the opening “Da da da, da da dumb dumb da” from The Beatles’ “From Me To You”.

Wow never noticed this before. Copyright infringement suits have been won over less

In Led Zeppelin's "Bring It On Home" when the rocked up part kicks in, the guitar riff is similar to the horn riff in "Think" by James Brown & the Famous Flames

wow! can't believe i never connected that

Just noticed some similarities between Tower of Power's "What is Hip:"

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

And Van Halen's "Mean Street"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4akn6e59TQ

Ha, that's the one that always sounds a little like Three Lock Box to me.

And yet, Sammy doesn't sound like the Tower of Power either.

This morning the radio reminded me how cool it was when Prince cloned a Cocteau Twins track for Martika
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10V_Z0_udjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSEtYTp78Sk

*YMO's 'Computer Games' first bars play*

"WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE..."

LOVE that Martika track

I heard this powerful instrumental guitar version of "Hello" by Lionel Ritchie on the AM station the other day. Love shit like this, wanted to know who it was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-0KRM_eROA

And then the announcer backsold the song by saying "that was 'Still Got the Blues' by Gary Moore." I presume the DJ said that with a straight face.

But there was NO WAY that wasn't "Hello"!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHONNcZbwDY

Preliminary Google search says, yeah, it's definitely a rip-off. There's even a Fark link from 14 years ago saying Moore lost his case against Richie. But I can't find anything solid, especially about settlements and credit.

But with a lead from Wikipedia, I learn that Moore lost a suit brought by a German band from the 70s, Jud's Gallery. And yup, there's that "Hello" melody buried at the end, starting around 10:20 (kicking in about a minute later.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8mOgcUar-8

So now we've got a song that predates "Hello" by 15 years. Was Richie ever called out by Jud's Gallery too? No, but he was sued by Marjorie White, who claims Richie ripped off her song, "I'm Not Ready To Go," which I can't find an example of anywhere.

Richie won that case, by the way.

(And in posts that sound like other posts, Geoff mentioned this in 2006: songs that sound like other songs)

Was thinking this week how R.E.M.'s "Tongue" is a bit like Twentieth Century Zoo's "Quiet Before the Storm" once the latter gets going

Would seem unlikely that this could be described as sounding like anything else but that main recurring melody is lifted straight from Van der Graaf Generator (and George Martin's) "Theme One". Also, who knew people were still playing stuff that sounded like this on the BBC in the 1979?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plgiMK5wXA

Following on from pplains's post, I heard today a brand-new song by the Algerian Berber singer Souad Massi that very obviously uses the Lionel Richie "Hello" melody. The song is "Dessine-moi un pays" and the "Hello" bit starts at 00:42.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wcoj3Cjkuc

Little more veiled than Gary Moore, but that's still it!

Driving me nuts (aptly enough) trying to think (punk?) song the intro of this reminds me of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPdiHkRqI-U

... I'm sure it's a punk song but it might be T. Rex?

The intro is the best Wonderwall rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p0Igh5EXjk

xp it's close to Cheap Trick - Hello There

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKjs4qoSZ0c

I've never heard that song so that's not what I'm thinking of.

It’s a little bit like the Sex Pistols cover of Something Else.