songs that sound like other songs

The term was coined by Jim Steinman

What about Wagnerian Rock?

Pharrell Williams - Gust of Wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWSRtPTmRr4

Living Colour - Cult of Personality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0

I always thought Gust of Wind was just a rewrite of Rock Your Body but with strings and robot vocals.

The guitar solo on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDAiZ0bLPSU

Reminds me of the intro to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VJ1flRKjqQ

I heard Kelly Clarkson's "Heartbeat Song" in a store yesterday. Complete and total ripoff of Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle." It's not even subtle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4_6N-k5VS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM

Yes that one is a pretty blatant ripoff, overheard it yesterday and without paying attention to the lyrics I thought it was a cover at first.

I keep thinking that Lunchmoney Lewis' Bills sounds like Bassment Jaxx's Do Your Thing, if Cee Lo Green had been hired to do vocals for it.

xp yeah! I thought it was a cover at first too, but the words were different so I was just really confused about it.

The Shangri-las “I’m Blue”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYzt04WsPz0
Monks “We Do Wie Du”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTTWjz2VQo4

doo bee doo bee doo bee doo

Here's the shangri-las embedded (I hope)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaIbfxalGcs

oh duh original is by the Ikettes

Just noticed today: Led Zeppelin - "Going To California" > Tori Amos - "Silent All These Years" > Pearl Jam - "Given To Fly". I don't think I would've noticed the similarities between any two of them without realizing the similarities shared across all three.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI7TV8zk3nE

I encountered this song a couple weeks ago and I've been coming back to it since. I don't speak or read Portuguese, so I have no idea what the lyrics are, but just yesterday it struck me that it sounds like a very slow version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I can't tell if it's intentional or not, but now I really can't stop listening to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89JbzIhIwlE

It's the production choice that makes it sound like Joy Division/Jesus & Mary Chain, it's a cover of a song by Ferrer Trindade. The most famous version is by Dulce Pontes which is more akin to Kate Bush:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_2fyB4dj4U

Thanks!

Godz "Where"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu8TJ3I8YrM

Buffalo Daugher

"Great Five Lakes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA41iuCmex4

Almost think this is an intentional homage but I don't know if Buffalo Daughter had heard of the Godz.

rly can't get over this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dak1ncxiHRo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPqr1nw1imw

Those two are almost the same BPM! Just spent a few minutes playing them at the same time.

Dennis Waterman - 'I Could Be So Good For You (Theme from Minder)
Barry Manilow - 'Mandy'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNwEpX1juTI

super mario world - valley of bowser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAMZq6UjygY

808 state - state ritual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1qSXSOwbi0

The main riff in "Misunderstanding" by Genesis is actually a direct lift from a part in "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and I believe that has been verified by Phil Collins.

― Scott Russell (Sickstring), Friday, June 9, 2006 9:06 AM (9 years ago)

Huh. I was just about to post this connection, but I see it's already been addressed. It never struck me until today, which is mostly my own fault I guess.

http://youtu.be/Ig6vIRmfoNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Wl2r_VlhA&list=PLcmf5ZQ2fbCVFq1mr8NqD8u6XuZQYIcdq&index=2

https://youtu.be/Ig6vIRmfoNI?t=19m27s

AHEM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ2xPTf8jEk

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

Quite possibly one of them challops posts everyone here talks about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ron1PSGI6GI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8K1R8q3fA

The Cure - M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uij9XyBizgI

Nirvana - About a girl

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

"riiiiiiiide ooooooon looooooooove"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVnNhPFkV3g

vs.

"looooooose yoooooour looooooooove"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N1iwQxiHrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-dNDwojJyA

And

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6DFLNa6MBA

OMD - Tesla Girls
Boney M / The Creation - Painter Man

These are so similar, I wonder if it was done on purpose.

NIN's 'A Warm Place' is basically an unacknowledged cover of Bowie's 'Crystal Japan'.

Trent Reznor: There was one point when we were doing the record that I came up with this melody and I thought, "this is really good," and that I couldn't have written it myself. So I played it for Flood and he said "that's really good," and I said "that's gotta be somebody else's song."

David Bowie: It's from a gin advert I did in Japan!

Trent Reznor: So I played it for a couple other people and said "I think this is something off Low, this just sounds familiar...I don't know what it is." So we did it, record's out, & one day I was talking on the phone and I got Scary Monsters, which came out on Rykodisc finally. And so I put that on and it's got bonus tracks at the end. And I'm listening and this song comes on that, to my horror, it's the same...Crystal Japan.

The main riff of the Minutemen's "Nature Without Man" sounds quite a bit like a sped up version of the intro/bridge to Black Sabbath's "After Forever" \

"After Forever"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mznunlg2nw

"Nature Without Man"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEMjzhtABo0

And that's that weird Black Sabbath song that sounds like it's about to take the last train to Clarksville.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtzlFO19m3k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h874BPSnbWc

Carpenters - Yesterday Once More / Belle & Sebastian - Fox In The Snow

But this is probably intentional

Etta James "Somethings got a hold on me" Loads of recogniseable sample sources, but that end of the chorus payoff line is definitely feeding Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain's gonna fall"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wxFn74Kr8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H2Vvfg0d3k

FEDER - Goodbye (feat. Lyse)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mptdcx36qZU

Der Dritte Raum - Swing Bop (Acid Pauli's Kosmik Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3D9oCH4zsc

two via my spotify discovery playlist:

The Tindersticks, My Sister/Pulp, David's Last Summer. Pulp's take somewhat cheerier (although hard not to crack a smile at the former's unremitting tale of woe).

Joe Jackson, Fools in Love/Elvis Costello, Watching the Detectives. More than just the standard cod reggae thing going on here.

Nice to have all these in one place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMaR6ljTK6c

Velvet Underground - Rock and Roll
Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil

Though It's probably been mentioned. But I can't check all those YouTube links.

Harry Nilsson cover of "Many Rivers To Cross" sounds like the track of "#9 Dream" with the vocal of "Mind Games" and then the outro of "Mother" tacked on.

I mean, I guess JL is on the track but still

Maybe after the "Won't Back Down" / "Stay With Me" fracas no one has a fuck to give about this sort of thing, but.

The ubiquitous Ed Sheeran song "Thinking Out Loud" seems to have the same chord progression and feel as Michael Bolton's "Soul Provider," which itself may owe a debt to the Manhattans' "Shining Star."

Do we have a thread about artists who, consciously or not, rip themselves off? I'm thinking of songs like David Byrne's "Angels" and Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime"

Laid by James is a very cleverly disguised cover of La Bamba

Lou Stathis pointed out that Magazine's "Model Worker" sounds like it's based on the riff from The Capitols' "Cool Jerk".