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

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?