songs that sound like other songs

Tom D. it also reminds me of this one by Jeff Lynne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRsYbb8rWoE

As a father of a 5 month old kid, I have recently discovered that I’m unable to whistle a verse of ‘Hush Little Baby’ without segueing into the chorus of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ by Boney M

am i alone in thinking that hank williams' "why don't you love me" sounds like it was based on "turkey in the straw"?

The opening melodic phrase of the Mexican song "María Elena" is almost exactly the same as the opening melodic phrase of the American standard "Dream a Little Dream of Me." Interesting that the two songs were written in 1932 and 1931 respectively.

The chorus of George Ezra's "Green Green Grass" and the opening lines of Joel Corry & MNEK's "Head & Heart" have the same melody, in the same key.

Love, Signed DC / Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin
The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby / Love, Robert Montgomery
Tom Jones, It's Not Unusual / Love, Nice to Be
Bob Dylan, Times They Are a-Changin' / Love, Gather Round
The first Love albums full of songs that sound like other songs

Also "Can't Explain" by Love is an obvious rip of "What a Shame" by the Rolling Stones.

I may never forgive myself for voluntarily listening to 15 seconds of that George Ezra song

Also, while Love's "Signed D.C." may or may not have inspired "Nights in White Satin", its melody is indebted to "House of the Rising Sun".

It's a stretch, but I remember the first time I heard "Frozen Faces" by Propaganda the melody of the second part kept reminding me of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40r6r-pJ3UQ

Specifically the "all around me are familiar faces" bit. They have very little in common otherwise and it's probably coincidence, although the Props - did Propaganda have a Smash Hits nickname? Der Props? - Poppyganda were making demos of A Secret Wish at around the same time "Mad World" came out.

According to Smash Hits, circa March 1984, "Suzanne’s a freelance goldsmith. Claudia’s hard at it doing the German equivalent of A-levels, Ralf works in a bank and Andreas is a DJ, although he’s currently out of work", which raises the question of how you can be an out-of-work DJ. It's like being an unemployed non-stop dancer. I can conclude that Smash Hits didn't have a comedy name for Propaganda. It seems that the magazine barely ever covered them, which is a shame.

Whenever I hear Ernest Ranglin's "Surfin'" I start to sing Steve Miller's "Abracadabra"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuyrY--vs3U

...Kinda wonder if Miller at least subconsciously pilfered it.

the verse groove from the charlatans’ “the only one i know” reminds me a hell of a lot of “hush” by deep purple

The verse of "Showdown" by ELO owes rather a lot to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".

I remember John Lennon saying that on the radio when he was a guest DJ on WNEW-FM.

Greats minds...

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elo-song-john-lennon-adored/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOBm8hcvWDw

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-day-john-lennon-became-a-disc-jockey-on-new-yorks-biggest-radio-station

Sorry, didn't mean to overwhelm your original post.

“Spanish Moon” by Little Feat and Roy Buchanan’s “I’m a Ram”

Never thought about this before but “Little Sister” sounds quite a bit like “Lucille.”

Both were performed at the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, maybe I noticed it back around that time but forgot.

Stereolab - ‘Going Out Of My Way’ is pretty blatantly appropriated from Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers’ ‘Roadrunner’

michael jackson - rock with you
teddy pendergrass - close the door

Kinks - How are you? & Beck - Puttin' it Down: IV-V alternation using the same sort of easy strum rhythm as basis for almost the entire song. I think Beck's melody tries to imply the V as the root, while the How are You melody implies the IV is the root, but both resolve to the I on the chorus.

ok so ritchie blackmore def stole the "smoke on the water" riff from astrud gilberto's song "maria quiet" (on an album called look to the rainbow! very clever ritchie)

nabihah iqbal 'zone 1 to 6000'

sounds like

st etienne 'finisterre'

Costello's New Lace Sleeves has a similar rhythm to John Martyn's Outside In. Classics both.

Lonnie Mack’s “Why” sounds a little bit like “St. James Infirmary.”

This is very vague hand waving but “Heroes” is kind of structured like a Roy Orbison song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ym7Mg4yTZc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbt59pmT26E
obv both pull from the roberta flack song

both use the chord progression from “hey joe”!

yah i hear that too

totally

that hey joe progression is in a looooot of songs. i think i was on here a few months ago talking about brian jonestown massacre sounding exactly like a kinks song, which turned out to just be hey joe

Yeah I was gonna say... "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" sounds a lot like "Earth Angel," "Blue Moon," Stand By Me", etc.

A lot of "shameless ripoff" accusations resolve into "this is a really common chord progression" - not so much ITT but generally

I heard some weird jazzy song yesterday, and I swear to god, it sounded like Stone Sour "Bother", but it came first, and now I can't remember what it is. i wanna know who Corey Taylor ripped off

The chorus of the Beta Band's "Wonderful" (from their Heroes to Zeros album) sounds like "Candy Says."

Madness's "Keep Moving" (1984) is musically pretty identical to "Twilight Cafe", the 1981 hit for Susan Fassbender who died far too young.

xps Listened to “Bother” by Stone Sour (now that’s an appealing name) for the first time just now and the thing it distantly, faintly reminds me of is “Into the Night” by Benny Mardones

Just listened to 'Spitting off the edge of the world' by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and couldn't place what the main 4-note riff sounds like.
It's the 'I will love you till the end of time - I would wait a million years' bit of Blue Jeans by Lana Del Rey.

Every time I listen to Hearts on Fire by John Cafferty (which is a lot these days), I wonder if it somehow inspired the melody to Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John.

Compare the descending melody 0:57 in Cafferty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swo51-CG9Ss

with 1:11 in John

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

Oh hey this thread began on the day I started school, didn't spot that til now.

“The Loco-Motion”
“Mashed Potato Time”

not songs that sound alike and more songs that have a similar vibe (and are maybe in the same key?)

iggy pop - “neighborhood threat”
neil young - “southern man”

No one will care about this - but relistening to Use Your Illusion I a few times, I was struck that:

a) the chorus melody of "Bad Apples" faintly reminds of Royal Trux's "Sewers of Mars"; and
b) the acoustic opening verse of the next track ("Dead Horse") sounds a LOT like a solo Hagerty jam... right down to Axl's vocal stylings (at least before his voice gets more recognizably Axl-y in the last few lines).

Some Funkadelic song - on Cosmic Slop? "March to the Witch's Castle"? sounds like Donald Byrd's version of "Cristo Redentor."

― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, April 19, 2020 10:26 AM

Which is probably the original version, written by Duke Pearson.

― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, April 19, 2020 10:28 AM

feel like 'cristo redentor' owes an awful lot to 'summertime'

but don't we all, i guess

"curiosity killed the cat" by curiosity killed the cat sounds to me like a slower version of "hip to be square"

The James song "Low Low Low" is playing quietly in the background, and the chords sound extremely similar to R.E.M.'s "Crush With Eyeliner" (released the following year)

Klex - lifting (@ 1'25'')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKS-F4nU7bA

John Carpenter - assault on precinct 13 (main title)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb4hc1a7Vio

Steve Miller Band 'Big Old Jet Airliner' instrumental chord changes was a carbon copy of the very same chord changes from the Velvet Underground's 'What Goes On'. Don't know if it was a conscious thing or not on Miller's part, but it's the entire song.

paul pena wrote that song!