songs that sound like other songs

Another one for the "Suzanne" pile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHUjCR497w

I was on a Donna Summer kick recently and noticed a couple of things that Prince did too

The melody of On the Radio verse is Money don’t matter 2nite

When I heard Fairy Tale High from Once upon a Time, I thought that’s Paisley Park sped up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7pjyjaklbg

gorky's zygotic mynci's "mewn" employs a chord change which makes me think it'll morph into outkast's "spread" at any moment

main riff in X "Drunk In My Past" sure sounds like Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix "Octopus"

Just noticed that a few fleeting bits of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" come really close to Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle."

Wow

Listening to The Minutemen's "3 Way Tie for Last" it again occurred to me again how much the tune "No One" sounds like Jane's Addictions "Pigs in Zen" even the guitar solo part.

the youtube premiere countdown theme ('Space Walk' by Silent Partner) is a ripoff of Beach House's Space Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LExKshD32vg

LEMME GO WIIIIIIIIIIIIILD

actually that's not the part it sounds like, should have said

When I'm out walking
I strut my stuff
And I'm so strung out

btw it's "Let me go on"

Was just listening to "Mary, Mary So Contrary" by Can and I found it very amusing to imagine it sung by Anthony Kiedis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8MlhzDHuWI

otm i always thought 'Give It Away' was an intentional Malcolm Mooney homage

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

Believe
All i wanna do is make love to you

I've long been tickled by the fact that "El Bimbo" by Bimbo Jet (1975) sounds in an oblique way like "Atomic" by Blondie (1979). Once I was playing the "El Bimbo" 45 and someone asked me if it was some strange cover version of "Atomic."

ooh, it’s *that* track! remember it from the radio, think some deejay here used it as theme music for their show - and yes, you’re right, it does!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGs6PBgeook
(the Spanish emcee’ing is not part of the (original) recording)

hearing it now seems more than likely that it was a conscious source of inspiration, without “Atomic” being in any way plagiaristic.

it never registered with me att that “El Bimbo” was this big worldwide - apparently it missed the top 30/40 over here two years in a row - and I had no idea about its afterlife:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbo_Jet

(relevant to the Blondie angle: ”The record reached #1 in the Billboard Disco Singles, #2 in the Hot Dance Club Play and #43 in the Hot 100 charts in the U.S.”)

I’m only now realising that it probably also inspired the sound of a 1977 Dutch pop disco classic that I adore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7oelWcsdK4
Patricia Paay • Who’s That Lady With My Man

(fun fact: this lady would later marry Adam Curry of one-time MTV fame - they were one of the big Dutch celebrity couples of the time)

That "El Bimbo" video is what I call pure entertainment!

I'd never heard the Patricia Paay one - funny and very European sounding,

the Spanish emcee’ing is not part of the (original) recording)

On my 45 one side has a version w/o the emcee but the other side has the "Disco Version" that does feature that emcee!

My daughters have lately taken to doing some sort of mashup of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" and "Good Morning Baltimore" from the Hairspray musical. Their choruses are interchangeable.

I’ve finally bumped into the song that the “out of touch” verses reminded me of. It was “Tonada Yanomaminista” by Devendra Banhart.

someone on twitter mentioned that the get smart theme is incredibly similar to robert plant's howl from "immigrant song"

My head keeps mashing up "Yellow" and "Linger."

"Fox On The Run" has already been compared to ELO's "Do Ya", but also sounds like George Harrison's "What Is Life"

I always hear The Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things" in "Fox On the Run" - just the verses really

listening to the The City album referred to on the Carole King thread, my ears perked up during the intro of “Why Are You Leaving”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGc5fBOR_3k

I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAmVuYEeSSg
Michael Jackson ft. Siedah Garrett • I Just Can’t Stop Loving You

even the titles seem sort of connected!

the intro of echobelly's "dark therapy" sounds a bit like chris isaak's "wicked game"

Speaking of Carole King, “Keep Your Hands Off My Baby” sounds like “Please Mr. Postman.”

This does not reflect well on me but:
First sung line of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TdPVX3fl8
First sung line of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXxa2SVlQyE

Maybe one for the mental mashups thread

Green Day - Basket Case
Michel Polnareff - Tout Tout Pour ma Chérie

What is up with all these interchangeably atmospheric gospel/blues rock/pop songs I keep hearing? Like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-7IHOXkiV8

Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSye8OO5TkM

Grant Hart "Caifornia Zaphyr" and Mama Cass "Make Your Own Kind of Music"

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Saturday, September 16, 2017 7:09 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

another one here - the bangles' "where were you when i needed you"

A few caveats:

1.) Every band's probably got a song like this in their catalogue.

2.) Not a carbon copy by any stretch.

BUT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4HuAzHEUc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji73VzXyGKE

“Government Center,” by The Modern Lovers sounds like “I Think We’re Alone Now,” by Tommy James and the Shondells. D’oh!

That new Jonas Bros. + marshmello song keeps reminding me of Air Supply’s Lost in Love

I guess this is more a direct copy but I only just realised that the Mario Kart Shy Guy Beach music is the theme from A Summer Place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19yf447DDFg

John Darnielle has fun with it, but this thread is incomplete without, like, the discography of the Mountain Goats.

...and of course, I'm drawing a blank on examples. The best I can think of is "This Year" -> "Ox Baker Triumphant".

"Man on the Moon" by REM, and their track "The Great Beyond".

this is hilarious. short version: dude from Islands recorded a verse of a Julie Byrne song years ago, then quit music, then started doing music again, found his old recording of the Byrne song, didn't remember hers and thus thought it was his, finished it and put it on his new album. someone mentions it to him and he's like "holy shit!"

he's super apologetic, giving her all the money, etc. seems like an honest mistake / this story, to me, just screams "artist's brain":

https://www.stereogum.com/2151423/islands-julie-byrne-carpenter-prism-song-plagiarism/news/

(sorry if i missed this on another thread)

Wow, actually laughed out loud at that. Feel a little bad for the guy, but hopefully everybody gets out of it unscathed. Many years ago when I was trying to write songs, there was absolutely an occasion when I thought I wrote the best two lines in history and then months later it turned out to be from a song I had listened to dozens of times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2QxgoU00j8

I’ve heard artists unconsciously lifting lyrics or melodies from songs they forgot they had heard thousands of times but a complete cover might be a first… unless you count Led Zep?

Chromatics "Shadow" and Sonic Youth "Wish Fulfillment" have very similar vocal melodies. First time I heard "Shadow", it took me a minute to figure out it wasn't actually a cover of "Wish Fulfillment".

Lol just heard an Olivia Rodrigo song in a cab and like…. Wasn’t this already a song?? Like 10 years ago?? I genuinely feel like I’m having a psychotic break

— Claire Penis (@ZeroSuitCamus) June 18, 2021

I don't get the insistence some folks have that it's a "Misery Business" rewrite; the resemblance is so mild to me. (I sent it to a big Paramore fan for his pov; he was like - "I guess I hear it a little...")

Lorde - Royals
Paul Young - Love of the Common People

White Trash - Apple Pie
U2 - Mysterious Ways

I like the Lorde/Paul Young one btw. That's an interesting observation.

"misery business" and "good 4 u" are just pop rock songs with a similar chord progression in the chorus? really not very similar at all

oh wow at "wish fulfillment" / "shadow" though, never noticed that before