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

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.