Singles that sound exactly the same as the one previous...

The first one which springs to mind: Gary's Gang followed their 1979 hit "Keep On Dancin'" with the near-identical "Let's Lovedance Tonight".

...and Rednex followed "Cotton Eye Joe" with the arrestingly similar "Old Pop In An Oak".

No Mercy's "Where Do You Go" was followed by "Please Don't Go", both singles sounded exactly the same.

indeed.

First time I heard "How does that grab you darling?" I thought it *was* "These boots are made for walking" (Nancy Sinatra, obv)

Oh, Status Quo!

Pictures of Matchstick Men -> Black hills of melancholy.

The latter single is the better by far, but god is it so similar? yes.

Bobby "Boris" Pickett followed "Monster Mash" with "Monster's Holiday". Later on, he also recorded a similar sounding tune called "Monster Swim".

The Seeds : Pushin' Too Hard and Try To Understand

That woman who did 'It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To,' didn't she do another two songs about crying?

ATB '9pm Til I Come' and 'Don't Stop'

Reel 2 Real feat. Mad Stuntman "I Like to Move It" followed by "Can You Feel It".

Whigfield 'Saturday Night' and 'Another Day'

Ice MC: "Think About the Way" & "It's a Rainy Day". When these were hits, I often mistakenly conflated them in my head, singing "think about the way, it's a rainy day...".

Modern Romance do the double:
"Everybody Salsa" followed by "Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey"
"Best Years Of Our Lives" followed by "Highlife"

Vengaboys' 'Up And Down' and 'We Like To Party', though the latter was an improvement and lots more fun, they are THE SAME THING NEARLY.

Republica "Ready to Go" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous".

TECHNOTRONIC

Britney following up "Baby One More Time" with "Oops I Did It Again"

You Really Got Me / All the Day and All of the Night

Nickelback for the win!

That woman who did 'It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To,' didn't she do another two songs about crying?

I don't recall two, but Gore certainly did one -- "Judy's Turn to Cry." But her other big hit was the quite different / quite awesome "You Don't Own Me," so it's not like there was any running out of steam here!

Rick Dees - "Disco Duck" and "Discorilla"

Britney following up "Baby One More Time" with "Oops I Did It Again"

-- Mr. Snrub, Monday, January 7, 2008 4:00 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

lead singles from two consecutive albums, but there were 3 or 4 other singles between them.

Dis-Gorilla, but yeah.

xpost - "Judy's Turn To Cry" was actually a sequel of sorts, so it comes by its sonic similarity honestly.

Honourable mention (since the former was the Jacksons & the latter was Michael solo): "Shake Your Body (Down To the Ground)" and "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough".

"You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" are not exactly identical, but follow a very similar formula.

Surely early Beatles qualifies too then.

Modern Talking did this for all of their 80s career, although most notably with "You Can Win If You Want" following "You're My Heart, Your're My Soul".

Lots of 90s Eurodance:
DJ Bobo: "Somebody Dance With Me"/"Keep On Dancing"
Haddaway: "What Is Love"/"Life"
Whigfield: "Saturday Night"/"Another Day"
Technotronic: "Pump Up The Jam"/"Get Up (Before The Night is Over)"

"Johnny Don't Do It" was 10cc's second single, wasn't it? It isn't exactly very different from "Donna".

Oh, didn't notice Whigfield had been mentioned before.

Four Tops did the same thing once more later, when "Reach Out I'll Be There" was followed by "Standing In The Shadows Of Love"

Roy Orbison's best singles usually were always about the same subject. Musically though, Bo Diddley's songs all had a similar sound, as listening to "His Best" in one sitting will attest to.

Gary Glitter/Sweet/Slade pwn this thread

Milli Vanilli - "Girl You Know It's True" and "Baby, Don't Forget My Number"

Robin S - "Show Me Love" and "Love For Love"

Ace Of Base - "All That She Wants" and "The Sign"

Every single by K7

Surely early Beatles qualifies too then.

Which early Beatles songs sound the same?

everything before rubber soul imo

but srsly Please Please Me, From me To You, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine, Ticket to Ride are all nose-bleedingly similar.

NONE OF THESE ARE EXACTLY THE SAME

TS opinion vs fact

There's no opinion about it. None of these songs are exactly the same.

They have different song titles and different notes. Not exact.

Or do you mean TS hyperbole vs. fact?

Yeah.

You could be so pedantic as to render the entire thread useless, really.

Sounds good to me!

Coldplay - "Clocks" and "Speed of Sound" are horridly alike

123 456 78
123 456 78
123 456 78
123 456 78

Early '80s ELO: Hold On Tight and Rock 'N' Roll is King

The Honey Cone - Want Ads/Stick Up (not sure which one came first)
The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There/Come Go With Me

Chubby Checker - "The Twist" and "Let's Twist Again" (not sure if there was anything in between)

ahaha I always thought they were the same song.

Ides of March "Vehicle" and "Superman".

And though there's nearly a decade separating them, Spinal Tap's "Hell Hole" and "Bitch School" (either a parody of bands repeating themselves, or they were actually repeating themselves).

The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me" is nearly identical to "Wild Thing."

Britney following up "Baby One More Time" with "Oops I Did It Again"

-- Mr. Snrub, Monday, 7 January 2008 21:00 (Yesterday) Link

really should be "Oops!" followed by "Lucky"

but srsly Please Please Me, From me To You, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine, Ticket to Ride are all nose-bleedingly similar.

Well, I agree that they have similar lyrical content, and in terms of texture they're pretty samey as they didn't have much at their disposal. But on the whole I think each of those songs has its own distinctive identity, although they're certainly all neatly within the same genre.

I don't think early Beatles stuff generally sounded much samier than late Beatles stuff did, except that as time went on they had a much wider palette available in terms of instrumentation and studio effects.

I did think of Happy Together and Eleanor by The Turtles, though. And both of those songs are great.

The Knack: My Sharona and Baby Talks Dirty. From follow-up album.

'hip to be square' and 'power of love'. don't know and couldn't give a shit if they were successive

The Honey Cone - Want Ads/Stick Up (not sure which one came first)

"Want Ads."

Happy Together and Eleanor by The Turtles

Separated by several singles, but "Elenore" was self-consciously written in the "Happy Together" mold.

To add to the list:

Disco Tex, "I Wanna Dance Wit Choo" (followed "Get Dancin'")

Soul Survivors, "Explosion (in Your Soul)" (followed "Expressway to Your Heart")

Edwin Starr, "Stop the War Now" (followed "War")

Carl Douglas "Dance the Kung Fu"

I'll leave you to discover the previous single.

Early '80s ELO: Hold On Tight and Rock 'N' Roll is King

In the meantime, they had released "Twilight" and "Ticket To The Moon" and it'd be a bit weird to claim that they sounded anything like "Hold On Tight".

'hip to be square' and 'power of love'. don't know and couldn't give a shit if they were successive

They weren't. Huey Lewis did a lot of rewrites of his earlier hits. "Stuck With You" is "If This Is It" part 2.

Ever noticed how every Housemartin's greatest hist collection is non-chronological?

"Happy Hour" and "Sheep" for one. "Me and the Farmer" and "Five get overexcited" for two.

Ace Of Base - "All That She Wants" and "The Sign"

They released "Happy Nation" in-between those two.

Not that that one (or debut single "Wheel Of Fortune" for that matter) sounds very different from the others though....

"I Want You Back"/"ABC"!!!

The entirety of the Dance To The Music album by Sly & The Family Stone is an attempt to do DTTM in as many different ways as possible.

Coldplay - "Clocks" and "Speed of Sound" are horridly alike

i was aghast to read on wikipedia that 'The Speed Of Sound' is an attempt by Coldplay to recreate 'Running Up That Hill'!

well, originally - guess it ended up as something totally different and shit

Well, Talk was an attempt to recreate Kraftwerk. By stealing the melody. Because melodics are the key thing to Kraftwerk's aesthetic. Chris Martin's just not very bright.

By stealing the backing track, you mean? There is nothing on "Talk" sounding like the vocal melody of "Computer Love" and whenever there are lead vocals, the lead vocals always carry the main melody.

They didn't steal anything from "Computer Love"; they asked Kraftwerk for permission to use it and Kraftwerk granted it. It was their choice.

OK, ignoring the semantics of the word 'steal' (yes they got permission), Kraftwerk's 'influence' on that track is the main guitar riff, rather than any aesthetic concern or approach. It's a riff, the same way anyone might 'steal' any riff and use it in a different genre of music.

What I'm saying is that Coldplay trumpeted the Kraftwerk 'influence' on that track as if they'd all of a sudden gone Teutonic roboman techno, when in actual fact the sum total of the influence was nicking the riff.

What you can argue is that the chorus of "Talk" is build upon the same chords as "Computer Love" was. And since the chords are always an important part of the song itself, "Talk" - as a song - is shaped by "Computer Love". I am not speaking of the song (what Chris Martin sings) rather than the backing track (those guitar riffs).

Danny and the Juniors - "At the Hop" followed by "Rock 'n' Roll is Here to Stay". I think the keys of these songs are like a half step apart and otherwise they're pretty damn close to identical.

a rare triple play:

Run DMC - "It's Like That", "30 Days", "Hard Times"

Madonna might have 'used with permission' Gimme Gimme Gimme for her rubbish Hung Up single, but I refer to that as stealing because it's so incredibly weak.

Pepsi and Shirlie - Heartache and Goodbye Stranger.

"Used with permission" means that it's not "stealing."

"Hung Up" is a great song that would have been better without the "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" theme.

Geir, the refrain melody of "Talk" also steals the riff. You and your semantics, man.

Do you think that the last, vocalless half of "Computer Love" is devoid of melody???

"You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" are not exactly identical, but follow a very similar formula.

not sure if it was ever released as a single, but if it was, "i need you" would have turned this one into a nice triple play.

Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "Together Forever"

Tone Loc's Wild Thing and Funky Cold Medina

Geir, the refrain melody of "Talk" also steals the riff.

Not it doesn't. The riff is part of the backing track, not the melody. The melody is what the lead singer sings and nothing else than that.

Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "Together Forever"

Those weren't sequels, but "Whenever You Need Somebody" was rather similar to "Never Gonna Give You Up" too.

In fact, this was usual with other SAW acts too. Brothey Beyond, for instance, following "The Harder I Try" with "He Ain't No Competition".

nose-bleedingly similar.

what a weird phrase!

The Turtles did this ALL the time:
"It Ain't Me Babe"/"Let Me Be"
"Happy Together"/"She's My Girl"
"Elenore"/"You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain"

Others:
- Sugarloaf - "Green-Eyed Lady"/"Tongue-In-Cheek" (at least they had a sense of humor about it)
- William DeVaughn - "Be Thankful For What You Got"/"Blood Is Thicker Than Water"
- O'Jays - "Back Stabbers"/"Shiftless, Shady, Jealous Kind Of People"/"992 Arguments"
- Newbeats - "Bread & Butter"/"Find Ya Somewhere Else To Eat Your Crackers"
- Jean Knight - "Mr. Big Stuff"/"You Think You're Hot Stuff"

In fact, this was usual with other SAW acts too.

Yeah, I'm sure Mel & Kim followed Respectable with a carbon copy.

Speaking of Mel & Kim...Mel & TIM cloned "Starting All Over Again" (sterling southern soul from '72) with "The Same Folks" (a blatant copy, but it actually works)...

Those weren't sequels

In North America they were.

Eddie Kendricks: Keep On Truckin' & Boogie Down

1910 Fruitgum Co. - "Simon Says"/"May I Take A Giant Step Into Your Heart"

"You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All Of The Night"

Surprised it wasn't said yet.

You'll also be surprised to see it was said twice.

Yeah, I'm sure Mel & Kim followed Respectable with a carbon copy.

No, but "Respectable" itself was rather similar to "Showing Out". The actual melody was different enough for it not to be defined as a carbon copy, but they used roughly the same arrangement on both.

Sometimes, the "similiar" is the one people remember more...

Double Trouble & The Rebel MC "Just Keep Rockin" was followed by Rebel MC & Double Trouble "Street Tuff"

Both top ten (or thereabouts), but it's "Street Tuff" that gets the plays nowadays.

george jones "white lightning" and "who shot sam"

Ciara, "Goodies" and "1,2 Step"

Inner City's "Good Life" and "Big Fun"

The Ohio Express's "Yummy Yummy Yummy" and "Chewy Chewy"

Didn't a label actually release the same single consecutively but with a different name and packaging, as a prank/art statement? I seem to recall that they actually got reviews stating the second single was better/worse (ie. different) than the first.

Actually, it was an album. From sabotage.at:

The second album of Pomassl "Skeleton 2" (craft 19) was a test for the consumer behaviour and the reception in the music media. The first album "Skeleton 1" (craft.07) was repressed and completed with a new cover, a new catalogue number and new titles of songs. Also the press item talked of a new record of the artist. Most of the critics proudly reported on the new record and the musical differences to the first one.

Every Coheed and Cambria single?

Just took a quick look but I didn't see Chuck Berry listed. A lot of his stuff sounded the same. All of it great though.

- "Rescue Me"/"Safe & Sound", Fontella Bass (I've never heard "Recovery," but I'll bet that was a "Rescue Me" clone too)

- "1-2-3"/"Like A Baby", Len Barry

- "Uptight"/"Nothing's Too Good For My Baby", Stevie Wonder

Marvin Gaye - Can I Get A Witness/You're A Wonderful One

"Two Kinds of Teardrops" by Del Shannon. In places, the *exact same melody* as "Little Town Flirt". Mike Love would have creamed himself.

Anyone who calls you a pussy for liking any period of Killing Joke's illustrious career should be pushed off a perilously high cliff onto a merciless field of jagged, pointy rocks.

-- Alex in NYC, Friday, February 8, 2008 2:57 PM

Killing Joke Remasters Part DEUX!

Kevin Rudolf: Let It Rock/Welcome to the World

McCoys, "Hang On Sloopy"/"Fever"

yeah, heard that one...

Another Rickroll here because "Never Gonna Give You Up" was actually followed by "Whenever You Need Somebody". But you could easily make that three successive very similar singles had it not been for the fact that the not particularly similar sounding "When I Fall In Love" had been released for Christmas in the UK.

I was sure this thread had been revived for "Just Dance" and "Poker Face".

What about...

Lou Bega - I Got a Girl (Mambo No. 5)
PPK - Reload (ResuRection)
Lieutenant Pigeon - Desperate Dan (Mouldy Old Dough)
DJ Aligator Project - Lollipop (Blow My Whistle Bitch)
Procol Harum - Homburg (Whiter Shade of Pale)
The Applejacks - Like Dreamers Do (Tell Me When)
Petula Clark - I Know a Place (Downtown)
Keith West - Sam (A Teenage Opera)
Tony Di Bart - Do It (The Real Thing)
Sister Bliss - Oh! What a World (Can't Get a Job Can't Get a Man)
DJ Sakin & Friend - Nomansland (Protect Your Mind)

Some of those more than others, admittedly

first thing that came to mind was that Lou Bega song. man, the audacity.

Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs following "Wooly Bully" with "Ju Ju Hand", I mean it's basically the same song. in fact pretty much all their early singles were identical.

Although I can barely remember 'Do It' I do remember having a weird insistence (to no-one but myself) at the time that it was better than 'The Real Thing'. Not sure the thread really gets into such situations but it's funny when 'we' do this.

As mid-90s Eurodance really owns the thread, Atlantic Ocean's 'Body In Motion' was basically 'Waterfall' one key up and with added vocals iirc

And the Candy Girls ft. Sweet Pussy Pauline 'Fe Fi Fo Fum' and 'Wham Bam' are pretty similar - again tho I think I slightly preferred the latter.

Oh wow, I actually had Wham Bam on my list but I took it off for thinking the whole WHAT AM I SAYING thing set it quite apart (from memory anyway). But it probably doesn't, that much.

also this is the second mention of Body in Motion in under a month (I mntioned it in the songs that rhyme with the artist thread), which I wouldn't be surprised were the *only* mentions on ilx

Went to that thread after the post to see if it had already been mentioned. And I'm not even watching the TOTP repeats.

But somehow nobody mentioned Nightcrawlers 'Surrender Your Love' (after 'Push The Feeling On') yet.

Robert Miles 'Fable' maaaybe or may be just different enough from 'Children' to not qualify.

Ann Lee's Voices might count, with regards to being 2 Times

I think there's a group of several 90s dance hits which were ripped off for *a* follow-up except it was someone else doing it. E.g. Red 5's I Love You...Stop! is a lot like DJ Quicksilver's Bellissima, more than DJQ's own follow-up Free (although there were a lot of trance tracks in 96/97 used pizzicato strings and Faithless were the overall model). Or like how Doop is the obvious inspiration for Dorothy's What's That Tune?, or the Grid's Swamp Thing being the inspiration for 2InATent's When I'm Cleaning Windows (except both that and WTT were borrowing familiar source material, unlike Doop and Swamp Thing).

using*

There's not really much similarity between Sandstorm and Feel the Beat but the latter still makes sure to include a bit of the dududududu as a hook.

Not exactly the same, but I've always felt these were very similar in both sound and meaning:

Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone / Positively 4th Street

Side question... At first glance it seems the vast majority of these soundalike singles are products of the same songwriter or songwriting team. Are there notable cases where that wasn't true, i.e. a different songwriter or songwriting team deliberately aped the style of a hit single they had not been involved with?

- William DeVaughn - "Be Thankful For What You Got"/"Blood Is Thicker Than Water"

came to post these two, but Rev. Hoodoo beat me to it by 15 years. both john davis productions. blood came first, so be thankful is like the refined version i guess.

shirley and company, "shame shame shame" and "cry cry cry"

I wasn't even aware until several years ago that 'Only the Lonely' and 'Suddenly Last Summer' were two distinct songs. I've just always conflated them in my head for some reason. I don't know that they necessarily sound exactly the same but the tempo is consistent and they fit seamlessly together.

And then suddenly
Last summer
It's like I told you
Only the lonely can play

Kinks, "All Day And All Of The Night" is pretty much "You Really Got Me" all over again (though it does add a couple of extra bars going into the guitar solo)

It's the best example in that it's an obvious improvement (imo)

Jackson 5, "I Want You Back"/"ABC" — IIRC the latter was written around an unused portion of the former

'Run to Me', Candi Staton's follow-up to 'Young Hearts Run Free' - different chorus but that's about it.

Brainbug - Benedictus (Nightmare)

good Halloween banger, pizzicato string trance is great for this time of year

Bamboo - The Strutt (Bamboogie)

Maxx - No More (I Can't Stand It) (Get-a-Way)

Dire Straits' "Lady Writer" is virtually a carbon copy of "Sultans of Swing".

Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell/Paradise By The Dashboard Light

You can seamlessly mash them up: “Like a bat out of hell, I’ll give you an answer in the morning”

The Pioneers followed up 'Long Shot Kick De Bucket' with a song called 'Poor Rameses' about another Jamaican racehorse who had died the same week as Long Shot. The track also begins with a (slightly different) bugle call.

The group clearly had no qualms about flogging a dead horse.

i lol'd

Dire Straits' "Lady Writer" is virtually a carbon copy of "Sultans of Swing".

i lol'd

The Pioneers had another song about "Long Shot" while he was still a going concern. It is quite similar...