songs that sound like other songs

It was pointed out even at the time, but I didn't appreciate until recently how Rachel Stevens' "Some Girls" is essentially a crib of Goldfrapp's "Strict Machine", but with weaker production and a less charismatic delivery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIYgig9maY

Hearteningly the Goldfrapp song has millions of views on YouTube versus merely tens of thousands for "Some Girls". Rachel Stevens was only relevant in a brief temporal window and only in the UK whereas Goldfrapp transcends time and space. Whatever happened to Richard X? He was the Ilxor generation's Mark Ronson.

This all came about from a thread on RYM about the John Lee Hooker "Boogie Chillun" riff. The Goldfrapp song has a little bit of it, "Some Girls" almost none at all.

I'm sure there were Strict Machine/Rachel Stevens mashups floating about in the good old 2000s but it was possibly Sweet Dreams My LAX, rather than Some Girls, even though that would seem more similar!

Speaking of Goldfrapp, Kylie Minogue was definitely inspired by them when she recorded "Two Hearts". Even the video has the same esthetic as "Ooh La La".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQGU-vdXoVE

I remembered it was a Kish Mauve song first, so looked it up to check, and on the Wikipedia article there is a quote from Tom Ewing comparing it to Goldfrapp (among others), ha

the chorus of freez's "southern freez" quotes the opening notes of coltrane's "giant steps"

We finally went to see Hamilton a couple weeks ago and I feel it necessary to report that almost ALL the Hamilton songs sound like other songs - which, I mean, smart move?

Pere Ubu's "Waiting for Mary" and the Velvet Underground's "Lady Godiva's Operation"

^^ And the Stones' "Gomper" has that riff also

“Lust for Life” drums are a slowed down version of those on “Touch Me”

Music doesn’t otherwise sound similar but still

Never occurred to me before, despite Iggy’s acknowledged debt to Jimbo.

not to mention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcsZa3diYZg

!

There's a moment about 25 seconds into this (and then again a few times throughout) that sound just like For You Blue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMlLlwVk9eI

Some pretty intensive Talking Heads cosplay from Martha & The Muffins (in 1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrXQ31dGlB8

I know their previous three and their next two albums, but not this one, though the video for the title track is one of my favourites. Their shift into dance-oriented rock was somewhat at the expense of their strong melodic sensibilities, but basically hip Toronto bands had to sound like this in 1983 - the alt-country revival movement hadn't taken hold yet.

Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" and Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone"

I was gonna say the second half of Sabbath's Symptom of the Universe and PWEI's Familus Horribilus until I learnt the former is a sample on the latter

I can't listen to 'Doctrine' from Autechre's debut album without getting 'If we ever get out of here' bit of Wings - Band On The Run stuck in my head

Dome Patrol - The Cutting Edge
Chumbawamba - Rappaport’s Testament: I Never Gave Up

The Smithereens "I Don't Want To Lose You" guitar coda sounds like replicates the solo on the Byrds "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better".

kind of a niche case but prince's solo on the 1982 rehearsal version of "i would die 4 u" reminds me of the solo on "hurdy gurdy man", paul leary's moreso than the guitarist on donovan's version (who i guess may or may not be jimmmy page)

When you think about it, every guitar player may or may not be Jimmy Page.

The Video mix of Air's Kelly Watch the Stars and Beyonce's Bodyguard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rui0hzN-EFE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO22bx_25ko

The first two chords of Isi by Neu! and the opening of Ironic by Alanis Morissette?

This cruddy Bon Jovi song is like a cross between "Born on the Bayou" and U2's "When Loves Come to Town:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqqOlFxOl84

And then this Gwen Stefani song sounds a lot like that Chappell Roan song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apGh9uDfSTY

I am not joking when I say that the thread topic plays a key part on several levels in the new film Heretic.

Which Chappel Roan song ?

The Video mix of Air's Kelly Watch the Stars and Beyonce's Bodyguard:

― MarkoP, martes 5 de noviembre de 2024 20:01 (one week ago)

omg yes! been thinking for months it reminded me of something else but couldn't quite place what it was.

Someone on a Bowie fan group on Facebook has pointed out that "Sue (or in a season of crime)" soudns a lot like Cais by Milton Nascimento, off Clube da Esquina. A Brazilian contributor adds that when Sue... came out the Brazilian media were quick to point out the resemblance.

Tom Petty totally swiped the Jayhawks' riff from "Waiting for the Sun" and used it in "Last Dance for Mary Jane." (The Jayhawks had just opened for him on tour prior, too.)

― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Tuesday, January 13, 2015 6:48 PM (nine years ago)

Tom Petty stole this riff from the Jayhawks, we're stealing it back - Cracker "One Fine Day".

"One of Those Things" by Dexys Midnight Runners lifts the riff from Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London."

Liz Phair, "Nashville" and Will Epstein, "Moonlight Mind" -- both of them starting right around 1:35 sound almost exactly the same. I listen to a podcase that uses Moonlight as the outro and EVERY TIME it haunts me. I just spent half an hour tracking down the Liz Phair passage in question.

Tom Petty totally swiped the Jayhawks' riff from "Waiting for the Sun" and used it in "Last Dance for Mary Jane." (The Jayhawks had just opened for him on tour prior, too.)

― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Tuesday, January 13, 2015 6:48 PM (nine years ago)

Always suspected he also stole the "rebel without a clue" line from Westerberg. Incidentally, the Replacements also (briefly) opened for Petty on tour

From a Greg Kot interview:

The art is a reflection of the man, whose low-key disposition is punctuated by frequent laughter. Even a few jabs at his songwriting in a review of his recent album don't get him riled.

"Aren't you the guy who wrote I stole a line from the Replacements?" he asks, referring to a review of "Into the Great Wide Open" in which he was accused of swiping the line "A rebel without a clue" from a 1989 Replacements song, "I'll Be You."

"I have to be honest: I never even heard the Replacements record," Petty says with a chuckle. "It's just a real common line that everyone says all the time-I think Meatloaf used it on one of his records, too. It's a cliche, yeah, but it just sounded so good in that place and it summed up the character so well that I had to use it. It's a phrase that's been around, like 'twist and shout.' "

Which Chappel Roan song ?

I thought that Gwen Stefanie "Cool" song and "Good Luck Babe" shared a lot of similarities.

I don't know anything about this artist, but I heard the song today and not only did I know it probably wouldn't change much for its duration, I immediately thought of Moby's "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad" (which is more thought than most have given to Moby for a while):

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

"Cool" itself shares a lot of similarities to Yazoo's 'only you'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4g5MeonGYM

A little, yeah, but it never occurred to me. I was thinking specifically of this little vocal hiccup thing Gwen and Chappell both do, and Moyet (thankfully) does not.

wym 'a little' haha thats very clearly the inspiration

I also like this bc it brings back my argument that chappell is doing 00s versions of the 80s in the 2020s

Someone in the comments of the Beat-Club version of Eric Burdon and War's "Spill the Wine" pointed out that it sounds almost the same as The Appletree Theatre's "Brother Speed", from 1967, which was three years earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ystqmvSGFag

That's an unfortunate Youtube URL. And it does sound almost identical, although the basic pattern feels like something that might have been around forever. It's close enough that "Spill the Wine" feels like an... interpolation? How you say, cucumber? That's what the kids say nowadays. It's an interpolation.

parts of "she cleans up" by father john misty sound like "i can't dance" by genesis

Oh that Kelly Watch The Stars / Bodyguard similarity is spot on. I'd been wondering what her song reminded me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tv7nIwcGs4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWx-4OMAGEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuUnMtVT2fU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK7egZaT3hs

I have a theory that Yesterday When I Was Mad by the Pet Shop Boys started out as a cover of TV Playtime by Silicon Teens (which was itself a re-write of TVOD by the Normal) and the 'it doesn't really matter, cause the music is so loud/it doesn't really matter now, cause war has just begun' bit is a vestigial trace of the original lyrics.

The Macarena and Happy Mondays Wrote For Luck have a certain similarity in the groove that once you notice is hard to shake.

“Angel of the Morning” and “Everything I Own”

The Fall - Sub-lingual Tablet

the intro to Fugazi's "Facet Squared" always reminds me of the B-52s "Planet Claire" intro

This reminds me that it took me until yesterday to realize that The Sugarcubes got their shtick from the B-52s.