similar sounding songs

[Dr Rock]

Heard I Just Called To Say I Love You in a shop this morning. Have only now realised that my least favourite song by Stevie Wonder (perhaps worse than Ebony & Ivory) is cut from the same cloth as Elvis's It's Now Or Never (right down to the "cha-cha-cha" at the end), which is itself adapted from 1929's O Sole Mio.

Sorry I can't see any similarities at all. How does this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkMVscR5YOo

sound anything like I Just Called To Say I Love You?

[Steven]

Sorry I can't see any similarities at all. How does this sound anything like I Just Called To Say I Love You?

The verse broadly has a similar melody to the chorus of O Sole Mio is what he's describing I suppose. Though Elvis' It's Now Or Never was instead supposedly taken from Tony Martin's earlier There's No Tomorrow, which was obviously directly based on O Sole Mio.

[Dr Rock]

Nope. The only similarity I can see is that most (but not all) vocals in both songs have a vocal bar ('It's now or never'/ 'when I first saw you' or 'No New Year's Day / No April rain' then a non-vocal bar ('la la la la' if you sang las to it], and that pattern is repeated. That describes a million songs.

[Sin Agog]

The Stone Roses must have straight up rewritten Primal Scream's Velocity Girl (from that influential C86 tape) for Made Of Stone.  Kinda wish Primal Scream had kept on as a jangly indie pop band for longer, but I might be alone in that.

[Steven]

Radiohead considers suing Lana Del Ray for Get Free

Got to say sounds like a deliberate rip-off. But in all probablity Radiohead don't give a shit and it's whoever owns the publishing rights threatening to sue, as it's all a bit ironic as Radiohead were successfully sued for ripping Creep off of The Hollies' The Air That I Breathe, so Creep is officially co-written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.

[buzby]

Radiohead considers suing Lana Del Ray for Get Free

Got to say sounds like a deliberate rip-off. But in all probablity Radiohead don't give a shit and it's whoever owns the publishing rights threatening to sue, as it's all a bit ironic as Radiohead were successfully sued for ripping Creep off of The Hollies' The Air That I Breathe, so Creep is officially co-written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.

Given that, it's probably more likely thet it's Hammond & Hazlewood's publisher (EMI April Music, now owned by Sony/ATV) who are actually behind the claim.

[Steven]

Given that, it's probably more likely thet it's Hammond & Hazlewood's publisher (EMI April Music, now owned by Sony/ATV) who are actually behind the claim.

Yeah, that's what I was implying, just as part of the settlement they are listed as official co-writers of Creep too which the article seems to only state as written by Radiohead. Like Lennon being sued by Maurice Levy over Come Together/You Can't Catch Me which I doubt Chuck Berry had any hand as they had been friendly enough to perform together several times, but Big Seven publishing had bought up the rights and decided to use the case to blackmail Lennon into recording the Rock `n' Roll album featuring only songs on the Big Seven catologue.

[VelourSpirit]

Dinosaur Jr - Muck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOldZbECNI0
and
Kylie Minogue - Wow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL2HKKrY7sM
she thought i wouldn't notice. it's theft. j mascis will be raging.

[buzby]

Heard on the radio this morning, One Republic - Love Runs Out is basically Ryan Tedder reusing a track he produced and co-wrote with Adele a couple of years earlier.

[Darles Chickens]

Here are some I remember from the 80s/90s

Janet Jackson - Runaway vs Louise - Arms Around the World
Deacon Blue - Your Town vs Fleetwood Mac - Big Love
Laura Branigan - Self Control vs Sandra - Maria Magdalena ("creature of the night" lyric, melody and rhythm is just a complete lift)

And, OK, I like Phil Collins as much as the next man...
...but now "Wish You Were Here" just turns into "Oh how I wish it would rain down" every time I hear it, thanks to incessant radio play back in the early 90s.  THANKS PHIL.

[buzby]

Raf - Self Control vs Sandra - Maria Magdalena ("creature of the night" lyric, melody and rhythm is just a complete lift)

FTFY - Brannigan's was a cover version.

[Darles Chickens]

Ooh I never knew that!  Pretty much a straight cover.

Thought of another one.
Visage - Fade to Grey vs Kelly Osbourne - One Word.

[Johnny Textface]

Geoff Barrow's been on about this on twitter. The Weeknd apparently refusing to acknowledge the sampling here.

Portishead - Machine Gun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00PdHIPjaWQ
The Weeknd - Belong to the World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYO77zNhWl4 (starts about 2:30 in)

[Phil_A]

Geoff Barrow's been on about this on twitter. The Weeknd apparently refusing to acknowledge the sampling here.

Portishead - Machine Gun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00PdHIPjaWQ
The Weeknd - Belong to the World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYO77zNhWl4 (starts about 2:30 in)

Barrow's got a bloody cheek considering all the "homages" that appear in his own music.

[hedgehog90]

I need some help on this one.

I'd never heard the original Rupert The Bear theme song until a moment ago, but I was struck -- yes STRUCK -- by how similar it sounded to another song I'm familiar with... but I can't remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQqK-1_YeZ0

The melody during this bit:

There's a little bear, like you've never seen before
There's a lot of fun
Children everywhere, want to love him more and more
He's the number one

Particularly the lines in bold. It's so reminiscent of something and it's driving me nuts.
It's a happy, joyous song that I'm reminded of, very much in the spirit of the Rupert song.

And before any pop-crazed youngsters suggest - no, it's not Bankrobber by The Clash.

[Sin Agog]

For some reason the melody on those lines are bringing bits of The Tide Is High to mind.

[hedgehog90]

Nah, don't think so.
I'm pretty sure it's got the exact tone and rhythm to those lines I put in bold.

Duh n-nuh nuh nuh - duh n-n-n-n-nuh

Repeat 4 or 6 times.
Might be a flute + beat similarity too.

[itsfredtitmus]

the wombling song sounds exactly like sir geoffrey saved the world by bee gees

[Kane Jones]

I need some help on this one.

I'd never heard the original Rupert The Bear theme song until a moment ago, but I was struck -- yes STRUCK -- by how similar it sounded to another song I'm familiar with... but I can't remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQqK-1_YeZ0

The melody during this bit:

There's a little bear, like you've never seen before
There's a lot of fun
Children everywhere, want to love him more and more
He's the number one

Particularly the lines in bold. It's so reminiscent of something and it's driving me nuts.
It's a happy, joyous song that I'm reminded of, very much in the spirit of the Rupert song.

Puts me in mind of Petula Clark's Downtown a wee bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx06XNfDvk0

[Oops! Wrong Planet]

It's always reminded me of the "L.A. is a great big freeway" lines of Do You Know The Way To San Jose.

[DrGreggles]

Puts me in mind of Petula Clark's Downtown a wee bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx06XNfDvk0

Other versions are available...
https://youtu.be/Rny5QeCaWG0

[smudge1971]

I need some help on this one.

I'd never heard the original Rupert The Bear theme song until a moment ago, but I was struck -- yes STRUCK -- by how similar it sounded to another song I'm familiar with... but I can't remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQqK-1_YeZ0

The melody during this bit:

There's a little bear, like you've never seen before
There's a lot of fun
Children everywhere, want to love him more and more
He's the number one

Particularly the lines in bold. It's so reminiscent of something and it's driving me nuts.
It's a happy, joyous song that I'm reminded of, very much in the spirit of the Rupert song.

And before any pop-crazed youngsters suggest - no, it's not Bankrobber by The Clash.

it puts me in mind of something off Forever Changes or maybe She Comes In Colors

[Dr Syntax Head]

This lovely little tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d1TCVlRK0U
reminds me of this from the Boosh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ldQggHj78I

[Steven]

it puts me in mind of something off Forever Changes or maybe She Comes In Colors

Yes, it sounds a bit like The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This or !Que Vida! off Da Capo.

[boki]

Nah, don't think so.
I'm pretty sure it's got the exact tone and rhythm to those lines I put in bold.

Duh n-nuh nuh nuh - duh n-n-n-n-nuh

Repeat 4 or 6 times.
Might be a flute + beat similarity too.

'Sick and Tired' by The Cardigans always reminded me a bit of the Rupert The Bear theme (with maybe a hint of Rainbow too), could it be that?

[TheMonk]

When Cat Stevens/ Yusuf performs Matthew And Son these days he sings a bit of Tears For Fears Mad World.
"He's got people who've been working for fifty years/ I think it's kind of funny, I think it's kind of sad".
Has he ever sued them?

[George White]

Doesn't count really, as same writers
But The Last Waltz sung by Engelbert Humperdinck
and Demis Roussos' When Forever Has Gone

[thraxx]

This lovely little tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d1TCVlRK0U
reminds me of this from the Boosh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ldQggHj78I

I had forgotten how poor the 3rd series of the Boosh was.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I had forgotten how poor the 3rd series of the Boosh was.

It really was. Even though the Yeti episode was season 2

[Drop Dead Fred]

Driving in my Car by Madness has the same basic melody as Living in the Plastic Age by The Buggles.
You're in a bad way by Saint Etienne owes a lot to Telstar by The Tornadoes.