Songs that have brief musical references to other tunes in there..

For instance, David Bowie's Starman, which has a little bit of "Wichita Lineman" just before the chorus starts.

bowie does this with "a day in the life" in "young americans"

three others ~

the sex pistols' "emi" references the modern lovers' "roadrunner"
the specials' "little bitch" references the rolling stones' "brown sugar"
jessica pratt's "strange melody" references duran duran's "hungry like the wolf"

For instance, David Bowie's Starman, which has a little bit of "Wichita Lineman" just before the chorus starts.

― Mark G, Wednesday, January 3, 2018 11:40 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh yeah! Never heard this as a reference before but clearly it is!

HMHB to thread! Like when Irk The Purists takes a break from being Sing Hosanna to quote Agadoo :D

Oh yeah, and that bit from Oliver, "Oom Pah Pah" to make a reference to Mariella Frostrup

Sugarloaf's "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" turns into "I Feel Fine" for a second, after they mention the Beatles.

The Whitlams' "I Make Hamburgers" makes repeated use of the "Summer Breeze" riff (maybe just a ripoff).

Johnathan Richman "Velvet Underground"

before the last chorus he plays and sings a few bars of "Sister Ray"

Beck "Halo of Gold"/Skip Spence "Furry Heroine"

references Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" with Beck's version imitating a classic country arrangement for that one line

Grace Jones' La Vie en Rose has a piano playing the main Wichita Lineman riff in the second half.

fwiw I don't believe "Starman" is referencing "Wichita Lineman" so much as just a generic broadcast signal - much like "Wichita Lineman" did.

v. obvious but the reference to the guitar solo in the Buzzcocks' 'Boredom' in 'Rip It Up' by Orange Juice

That bit in Roxy Music's Re-Make/Re-Model where the bass does the 'Day Tripper' riff

The bit in Prince's 'Ballad of Dorothy Parker' quoting Joni Mitchell's 'Help Me'

The Beatles « All You Need Is Love » : « La Marseillaise », « She Loves You », « Yesterday », Bach’s « Invention no8 », Glenn Miller’s « In the Mood », Wayne Shanklin « Chanson d’Amour », « Greensleeves ».

Lots of this on PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, most notably 'The Words That Maketh Murder' which makes multiple references to 'Summertime Blues'

Pin by Grimes has that quote of Landslide in the bridge

Elvis Costello's "You Bowed Down" has the 12-string riff from "Turn Turn Turn" in it, probably played by McGuinn himself.

Rodney Crowell's "I Walk the Line Revisited" quotes, of course, "I Walk the Line" and he got Cash to sing on it.

Bach's 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' is quoted in the guitar break in The Byrds' 'She Don't Care About Time'

The Sea Nymphs' 'A Thousand Strokes And A Rolling Suck' makes very good use of The Beatles' Good Morning Good Morning

and Joni nicks a bit of Van Morrison's "Baby Goodbye" for This Flight Tonight (also done by Nazareth)

Then there are all 80's/90's hip-hop tracks that sampled plenty of other tracks of course (bomb squad, Beastie boys, etc)

One of my favourite examples of this is Tori Amos’ “In St he Springtime of his Voodoo”, which starts with “standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona / and i’m quite sure i’m in the wrong song...”

The goofy little 1812 Overture excerpt at the start of 2112.

john williams' theme for "lost in space" is practically pastiche of mussorgsky's "ballet of the unhatched chickens"

The Rutles "(Listen to the) Flower People" does a quotation of Ein Kleine Nachtmusik after the line "Listen, it's like a Mozart symphony"

that's Spinal Tap

and Joni nicks a bit of Van Morrison's "Baby Goodbye" for This Flight Tonight (also done by Nazareth)

― Mark G, Wednesday, January 3, 2018 10:04 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not to mention the bit of Jingle Bells in the intro and outro of The River.

Kevin Morby's "1234" references Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" at the end.

that's Spinal Tap

omg i can't believe i did that heh

This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

Elvis Costello's "You Bowed Down" has the 12-string riff from "Turn Turn Turn" in it, probably played by McGuinn himself.

Appropriate, since the song was written for and first recorded by McGuinn for his comeback LP Back From Rio.

...and on that tip, the Byrds bringing up a "Ticket To Ride" in "Artificial Energy".

"All Modern Conveniences" by Clifford T. Ward. When he sings the line "She likes to listen to the radio, music, Clifford T..." the string section plays his own "Gaye."

'vine street' as performed & arranged by van dyke parks on song cycle features a very obvious string quote of beethoven's 9th

'trippin' on a hole in a paper heart' by stone temple pilots quotes the main riff of led zeppelin's 'dancing days' in the prechoruses

'cherub rock' by the smashing pumpkins has a couple: the opening E octave vamp is a rip from the middle of rush's 'bytor and the snow dog,' and the chorus is the same melody/chords as cheap trick's 'oo la la la'

great thread btw

The 'Thought you might like to know' bit in Pink Floyd's "Apples and Oranges" references Sgt. Pepper title track.

"The Skye Boat Song" is referenced in Parliament's "The Silent Boatman"

MJ « Will You Be There » : Beethoven’9th

'you were wrong' by built to spill is full of lyrical references to famous songs but afaik has no musical references

bartok's concerto for orchestra quotes/mocks a theme from shostakovich's seventh

Does it have to be two different bands? "Pop Goes The World" by Men Without Hats drops the "Safety Dance" keyboard thing in the middle.

Eddie Money "Take Me Home Tonight" and they got Ronnie Spector to sing her own reference

The Velvet Underground "There She Goes Again" plays the intro riff from Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike" (The Smiths copped this too for "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out")

'silence kid' by pavement has the same vocal melody as buddy holly's 'everyday.' although i don't think that's really what the thread is looking for- this is little riffs or melodies dropped or weaved in, rather than wholesale rips right? another example of that is 'i want it that way' by the backstreet boys, which is exactly the same vocal melody as bruce springsteen's 'atlantic city'

Billy Joel's "The River of Dreams" concludes with him singing a little bit of the Cadillacs' "Gloria."

Paul McCartney (feat. Stevie Wonder)'s "What's That You're Doing" ends up with some "she loves you, yeah, yeah yeah" material. His concert-warmup-track "P.S. Love Me Do" is best left forgotten.

The 'Thought you might like to know' bit in Pink Floyd's "Apples and Oranges" references Sgt. Pepper title track.

― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Wednesday, January 3, 2018 5:33 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post

Never spotted that! Yeah..

Does it have to be two different bands?

lou reed quotes "sweet jane" at the start of street hassle.

foetus does this a lot... off the top of my head:

"kid hate kid" starts with the opening of the monkees theme song.
"satan place" quotes "wipeout"

"sick man" quotes the batman tv show theme tune.

'Lucifer Over London' by Current 93 starts off with the opening riff from Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'

yeah that one! the transition is stunning

it's the best song really

Ray Mang - Number One seems to have a bit of Turn Your Love Around by George Benson in the melody, but i'm not sure if that was intentional or not.

https://youtu.be/DN60ENBVGVw

I could be pedantic here and point out the originals of "Bing Crosby" and "The Four Mills Brothers" by The Lion reference "Pennies From Heaven" and "I Ain't Got Nobody" and all VDP did was cover the original songs. But I wouldn't do that.

Especially as I've just noticed you mentioned the originals! I suspect there's other references in "Bing Crosby" which I can't work out.

Another Christmas one: Nina Simone's Little Girl Blue quotes Good King Wenceslas.
Another Beatles one: It's All Too Much quotes Sorrow by the Merseybeats.

someone upthread mentioned the Velvets borrowing Marvin Gaye's Hitch Hike for There She Goes Again; to be specific, I think they borrowed the Stones' version.

Towards the end of The Church's cover of "It's All Too Much" they work in one line of Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue"

This live version of Carboforce by Trans Am lifts a whole chunk of the vocal line (played on guitar) of a Qawwali song, that I heard Nusrat perform on one of his more well-known records but cannot seem to lay a hand on annoyingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdFQELWES9o

(John Wesley Harding) Wes Stace’s, Cathy’s New Clown has a musical reference to the Everly Bothers song at the very end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiLdU2jBb2o

In the middle of "The Electric Co." on U2's Under A Blood Red Sky, Bono starts singing "Send In The Clowns." U2 never cleared or paid royalties to Stephen Sondheim (who subsequently sued) which results in this long note on the Wikipedia entry for the album.

At the very end of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. 6-9" Richard Wright plays the "Soon after dark, Emily cries" melody from "See Emily Play"

XP - Ian McCulloch was especially prone to doing this, thinking of the Dion quote in Over The Wall, and he would throw in lots of quotes in live performance.

The main piano riff in Coldplay’s “Trouble” is the exact same riff note-for-note as the synth/vocal riff in “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (F#, G, F#, D, B).

Volcano Girls by Veruca Salt. A musical quote from Seether followed by a nod to Glass Onion with "Here's another clue if you please, The Seether's Louise..."

I suspect there's other references in "Bing Crosby" which I can't work out.

― Buckfast At Tiffany's (Tom D.)

Possibly "Git Along Little Dogies" which Crosby doesn't seem to have recorded himself until 1959

The intro to "Where's Bill Grundy Now?" by the Television Personalities quotes "Windy"

Mick Ronson quotes Bowie's "Song For Bob Dylan" while playing with Dylan on the live 1975 "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."

Sonic Youth's Trilogy (the Wonder) sounds like Throbbing Gristle's Six Six Sixties sped up a little.

And another Christmas one: the Push Kings repurpose the "fall on your knees" bit of "O Holy Night" for the bridge of "Be Kind, Be Still, Be Near"

And Greg Lake's 'I Believe In Father Xmas' with a large chunk of Prokofiev

Nobody will believe me, but “Rapper’s Delight” quotes the baseline from “Good Times”

Pusha T - Numbers On The Board references Jay Z - Rhyme No More v briefly

i thought that was a literal sample of the song inserted?

thanks autocorrect for “baseline” and making me look like a doofus

I just read the whole thread and have to unburden myself of everything that came to mind as I read:

That bit in Roxy Music's Re-Make/Re-Model where the bass does the 'Day Tripper' riff

...and the sax plays "Ride of the Valkyries".

Bach's 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' is quoted in the guitar break in The Byrds' 'She Don't Care About Time'

...and also by Steve Nieve in "The Only Flame in Town" by Elvis Costello.

The goofy little 1812 Overture excerpt at the start of 2112.

...and "Night of Fear" by The Move.

At the very end of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. 6-9" Richard Wright plays the "Soon after dark, Emily cries" melody from "See Emily Play"

Something I read said he also quoted "Strangers in the Night" here, but I can't hear that now.

In "The All-Golden" by Van Dyke Parks, he sings, "Off the record..." and is answered by a parody of the horn fanfares from "Surf's Up" (which he co-wrote for the Beach Boys Smile album).

Beck quotes the melody of "Jingle Bells" in "Hotwax".

Deep Purple interpolate a section of Manuel De Falla's "El Sombrero De Tres Picos" into their rendition of "Hey Joe" (and then credited the whole thing to themselves).

Chris Stamey:

on Repercussion, the second of the dB’s records, there is a shout-out to Ives. He was famous for incorporating musical “quotes” in his original works, and we put a phrase of one of his favorites, the hymn “Shall We Gather By The River?” after the line, “Ives was on the stereo,” into the second verse of our song “From A Window To A Screen.”

Quasi-sampling:

The opening track of Game Theory's Lolita Nation features a montage of the opening seconds of three previous Game Theory records.

King Crimson play a bit of the record of "The Court of the Crimson King" in "The Devil's Triangle".

Faust play the Rolling Stones and Beatles recordings of "Satisfaction" and "All You Need is Love" in the intro of "Why Don't You Eat Carrots".

Metallica's very stupid "Don't Tread on Me" has a dual octave guitar rendition of "America" from West Side Story before the main riff starts.

ironic, since the movie version of that WSS song espouses ideas very much the polar opposite of what Metallica is expressing in their song.

"Stay Up Late" by Talking Heads calls back to "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by the Temptations.

"I know you wanna leave me"

Michael Stipe's Elvis impersonation on "Hey baby" after the "Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?" line in R.E.M.'s "Man On The Moon."

Pink Floyd's "Fearless" ends with the football crowd singing "You'll Never Walk Alone"

Spacemen 3's "Revolution" basically *is* the MC5's "Black To Comm"

The main riff from The Hives' "Go Right Ahead" ended up sounding so much like ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" that the band preemptively contacted Jeff Lynne for permission and gave him a songwriting credit.

Never mind "Fearless" - it's outside the scope of this thread

"The Silent Boatman" by Parliament references "The Skye Boat Song"... not briefly though.

Rich by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions quotes Telegram Sam by T Rex towards the end .

pretty sure Ballad of the Band by Felt quotes Outdoor Miner by Wire.

I been working on Concord Sonata this week and anyone who likes this kind of shit would be wise to go deep—-there are PhDs and published books written about tracking all Ives’s nods and quotes in it— Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Wagner, spirituals— he even wrote original “folk” music (and a fake Sousa March) as source material for his collageing— it’s great

Michael Stipe's Elvis impersonation on "Hey baby" after the "Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?" line in R.E.M.'s "Man On The Moon."

I glanced at a reference to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" upthread a couple of days ago and assumed it was about the quote in "Sidewinder". But someone was claiming that the horns in "How Bizarre" quote "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (idk)

Kate Bush throws out a verse of 'When You Wish Upon A Star' at the end of 'In Search Of Peter Pan'

xp that was me I was tripping

'vine street' as performed & arranged by van dyke parks on song cycle features a very obvious string quote of beethoven's 9th
Which then dissolves into a lick from "The Entertainer"! There are probably fifteen little jokes on that album

there are probably fifteen little jokes in that one song, the album is just relentless

― flappy bird, Saturday, January 13, 2018 8:10 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I been working on Concord Sonata this week and anyone who likes this kind of shit would be wise to go deep—-there are PhDs and published books written about tracking all Ives’s nods and quotes in it— Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Wagner, spirituals— he even wrote original “folk” music (and a fake Sousa March) as source material for his collageing— it’s great

― the five French fry feeling (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, August 25, 2022 11:11 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://medium.com/@bizmarkiemoon/charles-ives-in-groucho-marxs-pajamas-5ffcd3f5597f

xps Jellyfish have a "When You Wish Upon a Star" reference too, in "Joining a Fan Club" — the strings come in with a bit of the melody after a lyrical reference to Pinocchio

At the end of "Fruits and Vegetables" by Chunky, Novi and Ernie, they interpolate melodies from at least three sources:

Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf
The Merrie Melodies theme
The Toreador theme from Bizet’s Carmen

'The Purple People Eater' by Sheb Wooley (1958) has brief quotations of 'Short Shorts' by The Royal Teens and 'Tequila' by the Champs, both of the same year, as well as Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti', then a fairly recent hit.

Also, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway has a bit of 'On Broadway' by the Drifters.

...and there's a few bars of 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' in 'Joan Crawford' by Blue Oyster Cult

"Only Make Believing" by Junior English starts with a brief reference to "Windy" by the Association

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUXxEOVO5ms

has a bit of 'On Broadway' by the Drifters

speaking of the Drifters, i heard "Sand in My Shoes" on the radio the other day, which is a of follow-up to "Under the Boardwalk" and quotes from it. it's funny because Young/Resnick quote Goffin and King's "Up on the Roof" (also a hit for the drifters) in "Under the Boardwalk", and it's almost like with "Sand in My Shoes" they were trying to keep the momentum going but came up short. the formula's not quite right, though; a different songwriting team would've had to quote "Under the Boardwalk" -- maybe then it would've been a hit.

Art Brut - "Bang Bang Rock & Roll"

After the repeated line "I can't stand the sound of the Velvet Underground," the rest of the band sing "White light! White heat!"

"Only Make Believing" by Junior English starts with a brief reference to "Windy" by the Association

Cool!

The Avalanches have kids singing the Beatles 'Come Together' in 'The Noisy Eater'
The White Stripes throw in some 'John the Revelator' in the middle of 'Cannon'
White does this a lot live.
Here he throws in some of 'That Would Be Something' while doing 'Mother Nature's Son' during a McCartney honor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox6SWAiDGyY

That video really brings to mind Sasha Frere-Jones' quip describing Jack White: "I have large biceps but also look like Michael Jackson"

I googled that quote, and it led me to this fascinating article about the making of the cover - and the statue - for HIStory. It was sketched out by Drew Struzan, although his version made Michael Jackson look like Guybrush Threepwood from The Secret of Monkey Island.

It was an early use of mo-cap... except that it was static. But yes, they made a model first and then digitised it. "The model ... was then adorned with over four thousand lines that served to mark the topography of the model. This was then used to digitize the model and match the appropriate coordinates to the computer. It was decided that computer graphics technology would be used to create a high quality and realistic image. This would allow the designers to help fine-tune the light, textures, camera angles, and other details."

So they made an expensive and finely-detailed grey plaster sculpture of Michael Jackson, then digitised it in order to make it look like a grey plaster sculpture. Record labels had so much money back then. Apparently Michael Jackson thought that his thighs looked too fat. The sculptor was seven months pregnant - and when she gave birth she called her son Jackson.

Ye Gods:
https://www.artofdesignonline.com/uploads/1/1/7/1/117189571/history-golden-statue-dancing-diana-walczak-1995_orig.jpg

Then they made nine 10 meter statues

https://pophistorydig.com/topics/the-jackson-statues-1995/

I've long been fascinated by that musical pairing between "Up on the Roof" and "Under the Boardwalk" --- these two different forms of escape from the challenges of the city, one sensual/chthonic and the other more cerebral/skyward. And then of course, in "On Broadway," they're right there in the thick of the street. It's as if someone was consciously feeding the group 'spatial' material to go with their space-traveling name, though it's more likely they're just trying to recapture the magic. "At the Club," "Up on the Streets of Harlem," "Saturday Night at the Movies" (eventually followed up with "Kissin' in the Back Row of the Movies").