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similar sounding songs

Started by european son, February 24, 2004, 03:20:45 AM

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grassbath

This may already be a well-known one, but I was struck today by the similarity of the verse of 'Wild World' by Cat Stevens to the verse of 'It's a Sin' by the Pet Shop Boys. I think it's the chords mainly, but it's persistent enough that I feel the need to complete the melody of the latter with the former.

itsfredtitmus

Lots of mid-era Madness songs (tomorrow's just another day) sound like the theme to sweeney

think i said this before

Mr Banlon


phantom_power

Watching a YouTube clip today I discovered that Japanese Cowboy by Ween has the same tune as Chariots of Fire.

Also, the first few lines of Ocean Man are nicked from Echoes by Pink Floyd (Won't you take me by the hand, lead me to the land, that you understand)

Quote from: grassbath on January 14, 2018, 05:35:48 PM
This may already be a well-known one, but I was struck today by the similarity of the verse of 'Wild World' by Cat Stevens to the verse of 'It's a Sin' by the Pet Shop Boys. I think it's the chords mainly, but it's persistent enough that I feel the need to complete the melody of the latter with the former.

Both songs are loosely constructed around the 'circle of fifths' chord progression, something which is as ubiquitous as your typical 12 bar blues chord sequence.  "I Will Survive" is another example of a song based around a circle of fifths.

Jonathan King claimed the PSB plagiarised the tune and even released an awful cover of Wild World in the style of It's a Sin to try and labour the point.  Apparently the PSBs sued and won out-of-court damages which they donated to charity, but it still wasn't enough to wipe that wonky smile off his face.

Problem is, they're not really quite similar enough to make the claim.  In fact, It's A Sin fits better over the chords of I Will Survive than it does over Wild World.

Janie Jones

Ezra Furman's 'Suck the blood from my wound' https://youtu.be/JGK2cEZJE4o
is very noticeably based on Springsteen's Born to Run', and also reminds me of MGMT's Time to Pretend
https://youtu.be/B9dSYgd5Elk

non capisco

Quote from: Janie Jones on February 23, 2018, 11:36:31 AM
Ezra Furman's 'Suck the blood from my wound' https://youtu.be/JGK2cEZJE4o
is very noticeably based on Springsteen's Born to Run', and also reminds me of MGMT's Time to Pretend
https://youtu.be/B9dSYgd5Elk

He covered 'Thunder Road' when I saw him a couple of weeks ago so he's obviously on a bit of a Boss kick.

'Somewhere In My Heart' by Aztec Camera has the same verse melody as 'Sanctuary' by the fiercely undersung early 80s band New Musik.

Brundle-Fly

I was listening to Future Islands Seasons recently and it occurred to me how similar the synth line melody is to Born Slippy by The Underworlds. Somebody could do a great mash-up of these two.

Morrison Lard

Faith No More "From Out Of Nowhere", and the chorus from The Police "So Lonely"

phantom_power

This more a knowing nod than anything but I realised the other day that the chorus of Mistadobalina by Del the etc. has the same chorus and almost the same words as Gloryhallastoopid by Parliament

The chorus to No Tomorrow by Suede has almost the same dive-bombing guitar riff as the last bars of Sheep by Pink Floyd.

jobotic

Why does no one care about this? Or is it so famous that I'm silly for mentioning it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGGfRJzi42k

buzby

#492
Quote from: jobotic on January 18, 2019, 09:20:25 PM
Why does no one care about this? Or is it so famous that I'm silly for mentioning it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGGfRJzi42k
I think it's obscurity, more than anything.ele. They had one album that spawned three singles, none of which were hits even in their native Italy (the same trio were also putting records out as Kano at the same time, to far more success).

Sumner (and Hook) are both self-confessed thieves, and Sumner in particular was known to be familiar with Italo-disco (see the lift from Klein + MBO's Dirty Talk on Blue Monday) so it's not inconceivable that he might have heard Sphinx's album prior to writing the vocal melody for Sub-Culture during the Low-Life sessions at the end of 1984.

It's not like Messrs. Ninzatti, Bonsanto and Pulga were averse to a bit of thievery themselves - the synth bassline on the extended version of Bad Girl clearly owes a debt to Blue Monday (or Sylvester's You Make Me Feel Might Real, where New Order nicked it from for Blue Monday), and Counting Song from their album is clearly 'inspired' by Yazoo's Don't Go and Situation. Half of the B-side fo the album was also taken up with a cover of Cerrone's Love In C Minor.

La Roux's Bulletproof does bear at least a passing similarity to another track on their album, Collision


flotemysost

These two tracks with Camila Cabello sound ridiculously similar to me (and I don't mean that in an old fogey-ish, 'all chart music sounds the same nowadays' way):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FITSPSA8gQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpbQ4I3Eidg

I think I heard both on the radio in a shop and didn't realise it was the same person at first, but it's the way the chorus melody uses the same kind of notes and arcs into those breathy high vocals before coming back down again in a 'full circle' sort of way (I'm sure someone with a better understanding of music could phrase that more technically).

Kind of reminds me of when Lady Gaga first became massive and 'Just Dance' and 'Poker Face' were everywhere, both had that same slightly bleak-sounding club beat. (I always preferred Just Dance, fwiw)

Crabwalk

'Everybody's Happy Nowadays' by Buzzcocks was just on 6 Music and i absentmindedly started singing 'Someday' by The Strokes. First time it's hit me how much the latter stole from was inspired by the former.

Dusty Substance

Quote from: grassbath on January 14, 2018, 05:35:48 PM
This may already be a well-known one, but I was struck today by the similarity of the verse of 'Wild World' by Cat Stevens to the verse of 'It's a Sin' by the Pet Shop Boys. I think it's the chords mainly, but it's persistent enough that I feel the need to complete the melody of the latter with the former.

That had never occurred to me until now but it absolutely makes sense. Father And Son, another Cat Stevens melody was also "homaged" by Flaming Lips on their single Flight Test from Yoshimi Battle The Pink Robots. Mr. Islam settled with the Lips and now gets some nice royalties from that record.

My girlfriend and I used to constantly disagree about my theory that Arcade Fire's Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) owed a great debt to Blondie's Heart Of Glass (possibly the greatest pop song ever written). I was never able to fully articulate why I thought songs sounded so similar to my ears (I have no musical playing ability at all, she's from one of those families with a piano in the lounge) and she would never have it. Even when the video of Debbie Harry doing a live mash-up with Arcade Fire live at Coachella surfaced on You Tube, she refused to hear the similarities. We broke up some time later and she now hates me beyond measure.






greenman

Quote from: Dusty Substance on January 22, 2019, 03:44:24 AMMy girlfriend and I used to constantly disagree about my theory that Arcade Fire's Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) owed a great debt to Blondie's Heart Of Glass (possibly the greatest pop song ever written). I was never able to fully articulate why I thought songs sounded so similar to my ears (I have no musical playing ability at all, she's from one of those families with a piano in the lounge) and she would never have it. Even when the video of Debbie Harry doing a live mash-up with Arcade Fire live at Coachella surfaced on You Tube, she refused to hear the similarities. We broke up some time later and she now hates me beyond measure.

Sprawl II's melody does seem semi nicked from Heart of Glass, albeit with a few changes.

Bently Sheds

Extended exposure to Radio Two in the office has brought me to two conclusions:

Ed Sheeran should sue himself as his latest song that he wrote for Westlife's comeback single is an almost note for  note ripoff of his song Castle on the Hill.

Jack Zavoretti's song Candlelight is heavily reminiscent of Nails In My Feet by Crowded House.


Crabwalk

#498
Have been listening to The Supremes and it jumped out at me that The Coral's 'Dreaming of You' is enormously 'inspired by' 'My World is Empty Without You'.

Not sure how The Coral song doesn't give a credit to Holland-Dozier-Holland. Blatant lift.

hummingofevil

No idea if this has been posted before but Taylor Swift's Welcome To New York has a real vibe of Robyn's Dancing On My Own without ripping it off entirely. It's rather good as a result

buzby

Quote from: Bently Sheds on January 24, 2019, 02:38:10 PM
Extended exposure to Radio Two in the office:
More recent  Radio Two playlist contributions:
Serial plagiarising nepotistic shitehawk Mark Ronson (a man who has never had an original idea in his life) and Miley Cyrus' recent single Nothing Breaks Like A Heart is clearly 'inspired' by Cyrus' godmother Dolly Parton's Jolene (right down to Cyrus doing an impersonation of Dolly's vocal inflections). the song has six credited writers besides the obligatory inclusion of Ronson and Cyrus.

Bananarama'a new single (!) Stuff Like That is basically The Supermen Lovers' Starlight with different lyrics. They are that similar that I had to check to see if they had credited Guillaume Atlan as a writer (they haven't) - naughty Ian Masterson!

non capisco

I realised today that 'No Pussy Blues' by Grinderman is basically a rude 'It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding' by Dylan.


phantom_power

The squealing guitar at the beginning of Take Me I'm Yours by Squeeze sounds like the theme tune to the X-Men Animated Series

Glebe

A mate posted this on Facebook. Lovely, but does sound in part a bit like Billy Idol's 'Eyes Without a Face'.