Unrelated songs that sound extremely similar

[ChemicalChaos]

Prompted by a discussion this evening:

Do you ever hear a song and think "that sounds just like [insert other, unrelated song]"?

What came on the radio tonight was Martina McBride's "My Baby Loves Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0SyALaWR08

The structure of the song and the guitar riffs seem to be almost a carbon copy of Queen's "Hammer to Fall"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU5LMG3WFBw


Similarly, Kid Rock's smash hit "All Summer Long"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSkFygPCTwE

seems to borrow heavily from Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qae25976UgA

(of course, it also samples Sweet Home Alabama, but that's only a short bit of riff)

So, can anyone else think of similar but different songs?

[MitchT]

Although they're in a different key I think the choruses from "Breakthrough" by Queen and "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley are startlingly similar.

[Nickp82]

Perhaps not extremely similar but a good few of Muse’s songs sound like they are developments of Queen songs.

[tuscaneer]

so.... back in the 90s my mates band went on tour with skunk anansie...neither band were massive at that time.

cecil had a song called "fishes" at the time and not long after skunk anansie had their breakout hit single "weak".... it was an absolute out and out rip off obviously from their shared tour. it ended up in court.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUQhRd1ssr8

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

[jet_noise]

Nick Cave's Nature Boy owes a lot to
Make Me Smile (come up & see me)

Disco/soul stomper Ellie Warren's Shattered Glass may have been, er, influenced by
'tis All Too Much

[NickCQ]

These two are clearly related (albeit not an exact cover)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNiXGX2nLU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUNJ5TRRYqg

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Adam & The Ants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p__WmyAE3g

And 20 years earlier, Rolf Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2SOEVbKsTE

[cherryowen]

This is a subject that has been rattling the music industry for a few years now.

Say you compose a chord progression which you think is original. You record it, post it YT or wherever, and it goes viral. Some person from a record company, cooped up in a dark room 24 hours a day to search the web for tunes that sound "similar" to tunes released by that record company can then sue you for copyright, It need not be chords, it can just be a sequence of notes!

Great example here

Anyway.

Howabout:-

Angel of Harlem by U2

Sounding eerily similar to

Pretty Flamingo by Manfred Mann

Or

Let Forever Be by The Chemical Brothers

Sounding like

Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles

[Walter Sobchak]

Shot by Both Sides by Magazine:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ybUqM8jf3mU

And Just by Radiohead:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnk4jiWamm4

Always have seemed to have similarities at the start to me.

[StevieBee]

Ba Baa Black Sheep would be nothing were it not for Gotye's Somebody I Used to Know.

[MitchT]

The choruses on...

"Be The One" by Dua Lipa...
https://youtu.be/-rey3m8SWQI?t=54

"Power" by Ellie Goulding
https://youtu.be/hKtP8GMM7Bg?t=39

[underwhelmist]

There's some Coldplay song which uses the riff from Kraftwerk's Computer Love, to the extent that I think Coldplay had to give Kraftwerk co-writing credit.

New Order were taken to court by John Denver's record company (or estate, I'm hazy on the detail) because the riff was considered similar to the riff in Leaving On a Jet Plane. Again, NO gave John Denver a writing credit.

[droopsnoot]

underwhelmist said:

There's some Coldplay song which uses the riff from Kraftwerk's Computer Love, to the extent that I think Coldplay had to give Kraftwerk co-writing credit.

I remember hearing that when it was new, Chris Martin was on the radio talking about it and mentioned that he'd written to Kraftwerk to get their permission to use the riff prior to releasing it.

The other way around was "Waking Up" by Elastica, which was a very similar riff to "No More Heroes" by the Stranglers. That ended in court, as did Elastic vs. Wire for another song that I don't recall.

[Patch1875]

Motley Crue’s Dr Feelgood seems to have heavily borrowed from Killing Jokes Love Like Blood.

[darreni]

Talking of killing joke, Nirvanas come as you are borrowed heavily from killing jokes eighties.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nirv...

[irocfan]

Megahertz - Für Immer does put put me in mind of U2's I'll Wait For You

Edited by irocfan on Wednesday 3rd June 12:09

[Stuart70]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Adam & The Ants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p__WmyAE3g

And 20 years earlier, Rolf Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2SOEVbKsTE

That really is quite disturbing...

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Blockbuster by the Sweet & Jean Genie by Bowie (and they were on the same label with a similar number)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y64211sjSko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYg_Ra4cr8

Taxman Beatles, Start by the Jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0zaebtU-CA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8AOkbfgNE

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Not quite consecutive!

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Famously My Sweet Lord & He's So Fine