songs that sound like other songs

Following on from pplains's post, I heard today a brand-new song by the Algerian Berber singer Souad Massi that very obviously uses the Lionel Richie "Hello" melody. The song is "Dessine-moi un pays" and the "Hello" bit starts at 00:42.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wcoj3Cjkuc

Little more veiled than Gary Moore, but that's still it!

Driving me nuts (aptly enough) trying to think (punk?) song the intro of this reminds me of...

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

... I'm sure it's a punk song but it might be T. Rex?

The intro is the best Wonderwall rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p0Igh5EXjk

xp it's close to Cheap Trick - Hello There

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKjs4qoSZ0c

I've never heard that song so that's not what I'm thinking of.

It’s a little bit like the Sex Pistols cover of Something Else.

is it "ca plane pour moi"? different key, but i still get the vibe

"New Rose" opens with drums, then a four chord riff, but then it settles in into the hook/riff like that Neil Diamond intro.

I always thought the "New Rose" riff was the "Raw Power" riff backwards (and sped up)!

Is it Suspect Device by Stiff Little Fingers?

I think it might well be! I'm sure there are Los of songs with similar intros but I had on a Neil Diamond compilation and when that song stated up I had to check it was still Neil I was listening to

hooray! that's what it reminded me of, then when I went to listen to SLF I thought it was maybe too generic.

“Suspect Device”, now there’s a blast from my past. SLF were my favourite band in the world for a couple of months.

and Jake Burns letting himself be inspired by his parents’ record collection, I love it.

Didn't Montrose complain that "Suspect Device" sounded too much like "Space Station #5"? It has a similar rhythm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxUgW5CLk18

The AV Club also points out that The Men used a similar riff in "Turn it Around":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7XmQzlxMoE

I have to say that's quite a stylistic evolution from "I Don't Depend on You".

Tom D. it also reminds me of this one by Jeff Lynne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRsYbb8rWoE

As a father of a 5 month old kid, I have recently discovered that I’m unable to whistle a verse of ‘Hush Little Baby’ without segueing into the chorus of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ by Boney M

am i alone in thinking that hank williams' "why don't you love me" sounds like it was based on "turkey in the straw"?

The opening melodic phrase of the Mexican song "María Elena" is almost exactly the same as the opening melodic phrase of the American standard "Dream a Little Dream of Me." Interesting that the two songs were written in 1932 and 1931 respectively.

The chorus of George Ezra's "Green Green Grass" and the opening lines of Joel Corry & MNEK's "Head & Heart" have the same melody, in the same key.

Love, Signed DC / Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin
The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby / Love, Robert Montgomery
Tom Jones, It's Not Unusual / Love, Nice to Be
Bob Dylan, Times They Are a-Changin' / Love, Gather Round
The first Love albums full of songs that sound like other songs

Also "Can't Explain" by Love is an obvious rip of "What a Shame" by the Rolling Stones.

I may never forgive myself for voluntarily listening to 15 seconds of that George Ezra song

Also, while Love's "Signed D.C." may or may not have inspired "Nights in White Satin", its melody is indebted to "House of the Rising Sun".

It's a stretch, but I remember the first time I heard "Frozen Faces" by Propaganda the melody of the second part kept reminding me of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40r6r-pJ3UQ

Specifically the "all around me are familiar faces" bit. They have very little in common otherwise and it's probably coincidence, although the Props - did Propaganda have a Smash Hits nickname? Der Props? - Poppyganda were making demos of A Secret Wish at around the same time "Mad World" came out.

According to Smash Hits, circa March 1984, "Suzanne’s a freelance goldsmith. Claudia’s hard at it doing the German equivalent of A-levels, Ralf works in a bank and Andreas is a DJ, although he’s currently out of work", which raises the question of how you can be an out-of-work DJ. It's like being an unemployed non-stop dancer. I can conclude that Smash Hits didn't have a comedy name for Propaganda. It seems that the magazine barely ever covered them, which is a shame.

Whenever I hear Ernest Ranglin's "Surfin'" I start to sing Steve Miller's "Abracadabra"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuyrY--vs3U

...Kinda wonder if Miller at least subconsciously pilfered it.

the verse groove from the charlatans’ “the only one i know” reminds me a hell of a lot of “hush” by deep purple

The verse of "Showdown" by ELO owes rather a lot to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".

I remember John Lennon saying that on the radio when he was a guest DJ on WNEW-FM.

Greats minds...

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elo-song-john-lennon-adored/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOBm8hcvWDw

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-day-john-lennon-became-a-disc-jockey-on-new-yorks-biggest-radio-station

Sorry, didn't mean to overwhelm your original post.

“Spanish Moon” by Little Feat and Roy Buchanan’s “I’m a Ram”

Never thought about this before but “Little Sister” sounds quite a bit like “Lucille.”

Both were performed at the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, maybe I noticed it back around that time but forgot.

Stereolab - ‘Going Out Of My Way’ is pretty blatantly appropriated from Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers’ ‘Roadrunner’

michael jackson - rock with you
teddy pendergrass - close the door

Kinks - How are you? & Beck - Puttin' it Down: IV-V alternation using the same sort of easy strum rhythm as basis for almost the entire song. I think Beck's melody tries to imply the V as the root, while the How are You melody implies the IV is the root, but both resolve to the I on the chorus.

ok so ritchie blackmore def stole the "smoke on the water" riff from astrud gilberto's song "maria quiet" (on an album called look to the rainbow! very clever ritchie)

nabihah iqbal 'zone 1 to 6000'

sounds like

st etienne 'finisterre'

Costello's New Lace Sleeves has a similar rhythm to John Martyn's Outside In. Classics both.

Lonnie Mack’s “Why” sounds a little bit like “St. James Infirmary.”

This is very vague hand waving but “Heroes” is kind of structured like a Roy Orbison song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ym7Mg4yTZc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbt59pmT26E
obv both pull from the roberta flack song

both use the chord progression from “hey joe”!

yah i hear that too

totally

that hey joe progression is in a looooot of songs. i think i was on here a few months ago talking about brian jonestown massacre sounding exactly like a kinks song, which turned out to just be hey joe

Yeah I was gonna say... "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" sounds a lot like "Earth Angel," "Blue Moon," Stand By Me", etc.

A lot of "shameless ripoff" accusations resolve into "this is a really common chord progression" - not so much ITT but generally