Songs that sound like other songs

[Steven]

Chance, the Rapper - Sunday Candy sounds to me like Annie's Hardknock Life.

Fucksake, it reminds me of Hardknock Life a bit, but mainly the intro is more something else, literally the first 2 seconds of the intro sound almost exactly like another song and I'm struggling to recall what it is, exactly the same tone to the piano, too. Anyone? I've flitted through a load of stuff from Ben Folds - Army to Mika - Grace Kelly, not either of those I don't think, maybe something by Rufus Wainwright, dunno, this is gonna drive me mad all day.

Finally figured out what the piano intro was reminding me of, Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks, it's not even the same chord, just the same rhythm, bloody hell, thank fuck it occurred to me as it drives me mad when I can't identify something that I know sommat reminds me of.

[thecuriousorange]

The Long Blondes copying Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4s76oLcPTo

[thecuriousorange]

And here's Oasis (big chunk of Wonderwall) being ripped off. Oh the irony.

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

[Steven]

And here's Oasis (big chunk of Wonderwall) being ripped off. Oh the irony.

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

Lee Mavers reckons Noel stole Wonderwall from one of his unreleased tunes She Came Down, sounds fuck all alike to me but similar chords.

[Steven]

No Rain by Blind Melon sounds to me to be directly ripped off by Green Day's Basket Case.

[greenman]

The Long Blondes copying Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4s76oLcPTo

To be fair it was never released commercially and I think the subject seems to be making reference to Olivers Army given that Cromwell is known for cancelling Christmas.

[Former]

Realised today that the middle section of Bowie's 'Blackstar' borrows a lot from Queen's 'Heaven for Everyone' - the timing, the timbre, the general mood in the bigger scheme of things...

Then again, Queen's 'Breakthru' ripped off Don Henley's 'Boys of Summer' so nobody innocent here.

[Steven]

Mose Allison's Parchman Farm nicked by Anthony Newley for the theme music for The Strange World Of Gurney Slade, which he then recycled as the single Bee Bom .

[Petey Pate]

The Whalers on the Moon song from Futurama has the same melody as part of the 1930s pop song Piggy Wiggy Woo (here performed by the Pied Pipers).

No idea if it was an intentional steal or not but its amusing to think that a 30th century theme park attraction would be singing a song based on something 1070 years old.

[Steven]

Speaking of Futurama, the theme tune is nicked off of this experimental French `67 single by Pierre Henry.

[studpuppet]

Brix-era Fall blatantly ripped stuff off.

Athlete Cured... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXcI7YROuHE

...versus Spinal Tap's Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXHmWXPwol0

Also, The Cure used to nick JD/NO songs - these from memory:

Pornography... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ-Ttk-qeGA
...is very similar to Atrocity Exhibition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AqeqAQ1ILI

In Between Days... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scif2vfg1ug
...is similar to Dreams Never End: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrh5kaWfyMQ

The Walk... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkCYh1x44G8
...apes Blue Monday's drum patterns and bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYH8DsU2WCk

I think NO got so annoyed with hearing similar sounding songs that Hooky/Steve started stealing basslines back, eg:

All The Way... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YveC8laqCs
...is a straight ripoff of Just Like Heaven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3nPiBai66M

[thecuriousorange]

i always thought this was a bit like the Beverly Hills Cop theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ao2u7F_Qzg

[phantom_power]

Speaking of Futurama, the theme tune is nicked off of this experimental French `67 single by Pierre Henry.

I thought it was more just a cover version than nicked

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vobezXjOj4 The Fall - Overture from "I Am Curious Oranj"
from 16 seconds in sounds like Run To You by Bryan Adams

[Steven]

Astrud Gilberto - Maria Quiet vs Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water.

[Ambient Sheep]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36486648/ed-sheeran-is-being-sued-for-20m-by-two-songwriters-over-his-track-photograph

Apparently sounds just like "Amazing" as performed by Matt Cardle on The X Factor, although since I can't play video at the moment I can't tell for myself.

The sheet music seems pretty damning though, especially if you know that a Gm7 chord is just a Bb chord with an added G below it (G Bb D F rather than plain Bb D F) so even more similar.  (Heh, they should have written the Gm7 as "Bb/G" to strengthen their case still further.)

On the other hand, if you transpose the whole thing into C, it becomes:

C   G   Am   Fadd2   C   G (or Em7)   Am   Fadd2

which highlights just what a common chord sequence it really is...

[Steven]

T2's In Circles sounds like Seashore by Ora.

[studpuppet]

It's just been pointed out to me by someone on Twitter, that the riff from Interstellar Overdrive is the same as the Steptoe & Son theme...

[Serge]

Someone on Twitter who read any book or article covering that era, presumably - although it was allegedly based on Love's 'My Little Red Book', Roger Waters is on record as saying it sounded like the Steptoe theme yonks ago.

[buzby]

Just caught a bit of James' set at Glastonbury, and was struck at how many of their songs seem to have bits lifted from other songs - the synth melody from 'Smalltown Boy' here, a bit of 'Joshua Tree'-era Edge guitar there, but then they played 'Out To Get You', which is basically a slowed down version of New Order's 'Temptation'.

[thecuriousorange]

Bowie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwrTlUWvo3c

Alphabeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3RjCiq1ICY

[BOBBY FLOWERS]

Was listening to State of Art by small time Scottish eighties fey band Friends Again and thinking how it sounds exactly like Prefab Sprout. The way the hooks are constructed and even the Paddy McAloon sounding voice. Being the small band they initially got judged as imitators but turns out it's from 1983 which is a year before Prefab's Sprout's first album. Though they had existed five years previously, how well known were Prefab Sprout then? Probably all music sounded like this.

Either way if you like Prefab Sprout you'll probably like it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=94YwZ1WWMQc

[Mr Banlon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_47JQxv9e-Y  Roger Webb - Smoke Rings (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwyZC68s0OA Pink Floyd - The sax bit from Shine On (1975)

[thecuriousorange]

The theme from Friends and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPyt5HoIRvc

[Puce Moment]

This must be a really obvious one, but I have only just noticed watching Glastonbury that Paul Weller completely rips off ELO's '10538 Overture' in 'Changing Man'.

Weller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v9WhRpQw8E
ELO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-RFwFjaVAk

Edit: Oh, yes, it is obvious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfSejDf7lPQ

A few weeks ago my wife noted the similarity of George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' to The Chiffons 'He's So Fine'

Harrison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kNGnIKUdMI
Chiffons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A

[Black_Bart]

The intro to Adele's Send My Love sound a lot ( to my ears) like Why Would I Like To Know That by Neil Michael Haggerty.

[Steven]

A few weeks ago my wife noted the similarity of George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' to The Chiffons 'He's So Fine'

So did the Chiffon's lawyers, though they were both actually ripping off the folk gospel song O Happy Day.

Sweet Child `O Mine was a rip off of an Australian band who were on the same record company and used the same producer so very likely heard their song Unpublished Critics.

[thecuriousorange]

So did the Chiffon's lawyers, though they were both actually ripping off the folk gospel song O Happy Day.

Sweet Child `O Mine was a rip off of an Australian band who were on the same record company and used the same producer so very likely heard their song Unpublished Critics.

Wow. Never heard that before.

[studpuppet]

Luke Haines' Baader Meinhof album had GSG-29 on it and this bit...

https://youtu.be/R1fNwGPXFYo?t=1m13s

...sounds like this bit of Slade's 'How Does It Feel?' from Slade In Flame:

https://youtu.be/LTKvpA2f3kI?t=1m55s

[A Car With No Doors]

This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXjLbMZFmo

seems very VERY similar of parts of Momus' Complete History of Sexual Jealousy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-LBMiloQlE