Misattributed Song / N To Z

N

• The National Aerobic Championship theme was not performed by the Pointer Sisters. That was Ty Parr.
• "Need You Now" is not by Taylor Swift. It's by Lady Antebellum. In fact, part of the song is sung by a man.
• "Negros de Mierda" is not by the Spanish singer El Chivi nor the Peruvian band Chabelos (in fact the band was formed in 2001, one year after the song was released), it was originally published in the year 2000 in a now defunct Argentinian comedy website named 4Kstore.com which closed because of complains regarding this song but in later years the song has been shared via peer-to-peer services and has been misatributed to El Chivi. Both him (in a song named Una Cancion Bajo su Toga) and a member of Chabelos have stated that they did not made the song, in fact it doesn't sound like any of their songs as it has a highly pitched voice, which neither El Chivi nor Chabelos have done in any of their songs.
• Even for Puccini's greatest interpreter, there was one tenor who never sang "Nessun dorma" — Enrico Caruso.
• "Never Ever" is not by Blaque, En Vogue, or TLC. It's by All Saints.
• "Never Gonna Leave This Bed" is not by Five For Fighting. It's by Maroon 5.
• "Never Too Late" is not by Belinda Carlisle, Berlin, or Heart. It's by Tuesday Knight, of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master fame.
• "New Girl" (from the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtrack) is not by Suicide Machines, but rather by the similarly-named band Suicidal Tendencies. Both groups are of the hardcore punk genre and thus are easily confused.
• "New Disease" (best known for its use in Shaun Palmer’s Snowboarding, in particular the demo attached to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3) is not by Disturbed. It's by Spineshank.
• "New York" (an '80s industrial tune that briefly samples Frank Sinatra's "Theme From New York, New York") is not by Front 242, Front Line Assembly, or KMFDM. It's by the German band Microchip League(MCL for short).
• "Nice to Be with You" (1972) isn't a Neil Diamond song. It's by a band called Gallery.
• "The Night Chicago Died" is not by Pretty Poison. It's by Paper Lace.
• "No" is not by Three Dog Night or Joe Cocker. It's by Bulldog, a 70's rock band formed by former members of the Young Rascals.
• "Nobody" is not by System of a Down. It's by Skindred.
• "Nobody Does it Better" (the theme from The Spy Who Loved Me, not to be confused with the Ariana Grande song) was not by Dusty Springfield, but by Carly Simon.
• Enrique Iglesias did not sing "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely", that was Ricky Martin (whose real first name is ironically also Enrique).
• Neither "No Surprise" nor "If You Only Knew" are by Nickelback. The former is by Daughtry, the latter by Shinedown, although the former was co-written by Nickelback's Chad Kroeger.
• "No More Words" is not by The Bangles or The Go-Go's, but by Berlin. Likewise, "Take My Breath Away" is commonly misattributed to Heart.
• "Normal Days" (not "Making My Mind Up From What You've Heard") is not by Chevelle. It just sounds like it. It's by Nonpoint.
• "Northern Lights" is not by ABBA, that is by British classical fusion group Renaissance. Admittedly, they didn't have the usual orchestral backing on that one, and the synths did sound a bit ABBA-esque. Another thing to add is that Annie Haslam uses English pronunciations in words like "can't" and "pass" (similar to the "Cool Kids" misattribution from above) which are not the way the two women from ABBA pronounce.
• "Nothing Left To Lose" is not by Coldplay. It's by Mat Kearney, again. you're not the only one who's confused.
  • Also not helped by the fact that, during the verses, his voice sounds a bit like that of Adam Duritz from Counting Crows.
• "Nowhere Girl" is not by A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. It's by B Movie.
• "Now That I Found You" is not by Lil' Suzy, although the singer sounds just like her. It's by the obscure Canadian dance trio YBZ. Same goes for the follow-up "Can't Stop Thinking About You".
• The original version of "Now You're Gone" is not by Basshunter. It's by Bazzheadz. The fact that it was a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Boten Anna" lead into Basshunter making his own remix of the song, which became his breakthrough international radio hit.
• "Now We Are Free" from the film Gladiator is not composed by Enya, but by Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard (who wrote the lyrics and also sings it) & Klaus Badelt.
• "No Words" is not by The Cure, but by Clan of Xymox.
• Vincent Price did not do the opening narration for Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast". It was done by Barry Clayton. When Bruce Dickinson asked Price to do the narration, the actor demanded to be paid an insane sum (about 25 thousand pounds). Not to mention that Price was busy narrating Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at the time.

O

• "Obsession" is not by The Human League (even though it sounds EXACTLY like them). It's by fellow '80s synthpop band Animotion, covering Michael des Barre & Holly Knight.
• "Oh, Pretty Woman" isn't by Elvis Presley. That was Roy Orbison.
• "Oh Sheila" isn't by Prince (despite being a longtime associate of Sheila E.)/ It's by Ready for the World. Same goes for "Love You Down".
• "Omen III" (not "Do What You Want" or "Show You Where") is not by 2 Unlimited. It's by Magic Affair.
• "Omnibus" isn't by Darude, though the instrumentation sounds just like "Sandstorm". It's by German One-Hit Wonder Laut Sprecher.
• "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" is not by Poison. It's by Ian Hunter, formerly of Mott the Hoople, and was covered by Great White.
• "One", not "One is the Loneliest Number", is not by The Beatles, nor is it a Sesame Street song. The version you're thinking of is by Three Dog Night.
  • Which is a case of Covered Up, the song was orginally performed (and written) by Harry Nilsson.
• "One Bad Apple" is not by the Jackson Five, it's by The Osmonds.
• "One of Us" (not "What If God Was One of Us") is not by Alanis Morissette or Garbage, but by Joan Osborne.
  • The Eurodance remake is not by Motiv-8, Gina G., La Bouche, or Le Click, but Outta Control, a Canadian act fronted by Barry Harris of '80s synthpop One-Hit Wonder Kon Kan.
  • The parody "What If God Smoked Cannabis" is not by the Cranberries or Weird Al, but by Bob Rivers.
• "One Thing Leads To Another" is not by The Clash or The Kinks, but by The Fixx.
• Boney M. never covered Neil Sedaka's "One Way Ticket". It was Eruption, another disco band with a Jamaican-born lead singer. The song was produced by Frank Farian, the founder of Boney M.
• The '80s synthpop song "Only You" is not by Erasure, but by Yazoo, Vince Clarke's pre-Erasure duo with Alison Moyet.
• Cher did not sing the mid-late '90s dance songs "One More Try" or "Stronger", those were by Kristine W.
• The trance version of Chris Rea's "On The Beach" is not by Nalin & Kane (you're thinking of "Beachball") or ATB, but by fellow German producer duo York.
• "On the Dark Side", from the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack, is not by Bruce Springsteen. It's by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.
  • Then again, if you saw that Family Guy episode that the band and song was mentioned in (when Palpatine requested it at a bar), maybe you might recognize their name, but not immediately identify the song.
• Tiësto did not remix the Theme Tune of A Clockwork Orange(which itself was not composed by Beethoven, but Henry Purcell, arranged by Wendy Carlos), that's "The Orange Theme" by Cygnus X (Moonman's Orange Juice Mix). Ironically, Martin Roth later produced a cover version of "The Orange Theme' In the Style of Tiesto's rendition of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings".
  • And he didn't remix the Titanic 1997 theme either, nor did DJ Sakin & Friends (who remade the Braveheart theme, also composed by James Horner), that was done by Mythos 'n DJ Cosmo as "Heart of the Ocean".
  • Tiesto also didn't (officially) remix the Terminator theme, but he did record a Suspiciously Similar Song in the form of "Forever Today".
  • That trance remix of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" isn't by Tiesto either, although it sounds just like him. It's by Keljet.
  • Another trance remix that may be easily mistaken for Tiesto is Tranzero's remix of "Arrival to Earth" from Michael Bay's Transformers Film Series.
• "Ooh, Baby Baby" (the 1999 dance-pop song) is not by Mary J. Blige, Cher, Culture Beat, Simone Jay, Sabrina Johnston, Love Inc., or Ultra Nate, but by Native American singer Jana Mashonee (recorded mononymously as Jana).
• "Ooh La La" is not by Lynyrd Skynyrd, it is by Faces.
• "Ooti Ooti" is not by Prince. It's by Nikki(yes, a male Nikki).
• "Operator (He Doesn't Call Me)" is not by Adele, Duffy, or Sam Smith. It's by Låpsley.
• "Ordinary World" isn't by Journey or Scorpions, but by Duran Duran (from the band's 1993 comeback album). The 2000s trance cover is not by Ian van Dahl or Lasgo, but by Aurora featuring Naimee Coleman.
• "Orgasmatik" isn't by Rammstein, it's by the Spanish band Blood.
• Rammstein didn't compose "Otherworld" from Final Fantasy X either. That was Uematsu showing that he is a fan of metal. Uematsu composed the song and it was performed (or at least sung) by Bill Muir. So either way, no Rammstein input there (and they didn't cover the song either, as some have claimed). Baffling, since Rammstein don't even sing in English.
• "Our House" isn't by Talking Heads, it's by Madness.
  • And if you thought it was by Crosby Stills & Nash, you're right, but that's a completely different song.
• "Out in the Fields" is not by Billy Idol or Don Henley, but by Gary Moore & Phil Lynott.
• "Out of Control (Back For More)" is not by 2 Unlimited, but by Darude featuring Tammie Marie, and was released in 2001, long after 2 Unlimited's dissolution.
• Mars & Mystre never remixed System F(Ferry Corsten)'s "Out of the Blue", nor did they produce a song called "Melodic Ambient Breakbeat". The former is Mars & Mystre's own "Electric Blue", which somewhat resembles "Out of the Blue", while the latter is the self-titled single of Gouryella, a supergroup of Ferry Corsten and DJ Tiesto.
• The 1990 industrial song "Overkill" that samples a documentary of the Rosenbergs' electric chair execution is not by Front 242; it's by Front Line Assembly.
• "Over You" is not by Justin Timberlake, but by relatively obscure British R&B artist Justin Osuji (known mononymously as Justin), three years before Timberlake went solo.
• "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is not by The Police. It's by Yes.

P-Q

• Pachelbel's Canon is not by Mozart; it was written by a fellow named Johann Pachelbel. It's called "Pachelbel's Canon" for a reason. And, while it is in D, it certainly isn't in minor (although it does sound interesting that way). Yes, it really was tagged as such on a file-sharing network.
• "Pain" is not by Slipknot; it's by Soulfly.
  • "Jumpdafuckup" isn't by Slipknot, either. That's still Soulfly, though Slipknot's lead singer Corey Taylor does appear on the song.
• "Painted Ladies" was not by America; it was by Ian Thomas (brother of Dave Thomas of SCTV fame).
• Within Temptation never did a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black." It's by Inkubus Sukkubus (not to be confused with Incubus).
  • Judas Priest never covered it either. That was their guitarist, Glenn Tipton, in a solo career.
• Neither Kesha nor Rihanna recorded a song titled "Palms to the Sky", that was "Radioactive" by Rita Ora (not to be confused with the Imagine Dragons song).
• "Panda" is not a song by Atlanta-born rapper Future, it's the Breakthrough Hit from Desiigner. The confusion is understandable as Desiigner sounds nearly indentical to Future on that track.
• "Papi Chulo"(the 1997 Latin hip-hop song) is not by Big Pun, Fat Joe, or Heavy D. It's by One-Hit Wonder group Funkdoobiest.
• "Partenaire Particulier" isn't an Indochine song but is the Signature Song of a more obscure French band named named like the song.
• Rank 1 did not produce a song called "Paradise Of Love", that was a pastiche of them by an unknown artist, which was also sometimes mislabeled as R1's "Such Is Life".
• "Pass the Dutchie" is not a Sonic Youth song, but by reggae group Musical Youth.
• The trance version of Maurice Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte(Pavane For A Dead Princess)" is not by Chicane or DJ Tiësto, but William Orbit remixed by Ferry Corsten, as with Orbit's take on Samuel Barber's "Adagio For Strings" (which Tiësto did later cover).
• "Perfect Melody" is not by Ace of Base or Basic Element, but by Solid Base.
• Heart never performed "Perfect Moment". That was Edyta Gorniak, with cover versions by Martine McCutcheon and Mary Griffin.
• "Physical" was not by Madonna, but by Olivia Newton-John, three years before Madonna became popular.
  • "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time" are also not by Madonna. Both are by Cyndi Lauper.
  • "Baby Love" was also not Madonna, but Regina (doing her darndest to sound just like Madonna).
    • Adding to this confusion, the song was supposed to be for Madonna to record but she passed on it.
  • And Madonna did sing part of "Sidewalk Talk", but it's not a Madonna song; that one's credited to Jellybean (a.k.a. John Benitez) and the main female vocalist is Catherine Buchanan.
• A track called "Pick up the Phone" used to be passed around as being by Good Charlotte, but it was actually a song called "Take it" by Pipe.
• "Pick up the Pieces" is not by Earth, Wind & Fire, the Ohio Players, or Wild Cherry. It's by the Average White Band.
• The original version of the Eurodance song "Piece of Heaven" that was Covered Up by Akira(whose version itself is often misattributed to Cascada) was not by Alice Deejay, but by A7.
• The "Pirate Rap" from One Piece is not by Tony Yayo. It's by Freshco.
• "Planet Rock" is not by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or Run–D.M.C.. It's by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force. And it wasn't originally composed for the film Swordfish.
  • Likewise, "The Return of Captain Rock", not "Cruise At Hyperspeed", is not by Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash, or Bambaataa, but by an artist named Captain Rock. And The Prodigy didn't do it first.
• "Planet Whip", an electro-house song sampling the aforementioned "Let It Whip", is not by Armand van Helden or Daft Punk, but by One-Hit Wonder duo Oakland Stroke.
• "Plastic Doll" is not by Gloria Estefan or Laura Branigan. It's the sole single of Italo Disco duo Dharma.
• "Plastic Love" is not by Ayumi Hamasaki, Puffy AmiYumi, or Utada Hikaru; it's by Mariya Takeuchi. Not to mention it came out a decade before any of the former three artists began their musical careers.
• Freaky Chakra's "Platform" was not on the Fight Club soundtrack.
• "Play That Funky Music" was not by James Brown, George Clinton, Sly and the Family Stone or KC & the Sunshine Band. It was by One-Hit Wonder Wild Cherry.
• "Plush" isn't a Pearl Jam song; It's Stone Temple Pilots.
  • "Wicked Garden" and "Interstate Love Song" also aren't Pearl Jam, but Stone Temple Pilots.
• "The Politics of Dancing" is not by Depeche Mode, no matter how much the singer is trying to sound like Dave Gahan. That's Re-Flex.
• "Pocketful of Sunshine" aka "the song Emma Stone sings in Easy A" is not by Mandy Moore, it is by Natasha Bedingfield (although Moore had a hit song called "In My Pocket").
• "Pop Muzik" is not by Men Without Hats. It's the sole hit of English New Wave artist M, AKA Robin Scott, and was released in 1979, a year before MWH's first EP.
• Gershon Kingsley's "Popcorn" was not covered by Kraftwerk. That version is by M&H Band, which in turn is based on Hot Butter's cover-up of the song. The M&H version is also often misattributed to Jean-Michel Jarre, who in fact did a much earlier cover of the song under the alias Popcorn Orchestra.
  • Nor is Jean-Michel Jarre the original artist behind "Popcorn". For that matter, neither are Hot Butter.
• "Possum Kingdom" (not "So Help Me, Jesus" or "Do You Wanna Die?" or "I'm Not Gonna Lie") is not by The Smashing Pumpkins or Everclear. It's by Toadies.
• Despite being commonly ascribed to Saint Francis of Assisi, the prayer "Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace", later set to music by notable musicians and commonly titled as "Prayer of Saint Francis", is not written by him, as no evidence of the song appearing in Francis' writings could be found; the prayer's earliest known appearance was in 1912. The Franciscan Order sort-of disassociated themselves from the prayer, and one church historian remarked that the prayer, while noble in its sentiments, sounded a bit too uncharacteristic for Saint Francis to have written by way of its self-oriented tone.
  • For the record, he did however write "Canticle of the Sun", but the erroneous association with the peace prayer remains.
• Sash! had nothing to do with Tina Cousins' "Pray", though it sounds like "Stay" and she collaborated with him on "Mysterious Times" and "Just Around The Hill". It was written and produced by the team of Mark Topham, Karl Twigg, and Pete Waterman.
• "Praying to the Beat" isn't by Gary Numan; it's by Re-Flex. You're thinking of "Praying to the Aliens".
• Spin Doctors never recorded a song titled "Pretty Baby". It's actually "Roll to Me" by Del Amitri.
• "Primadonna", commonly mis-titled "Primadonna Girls", is by Marina Diamandis, not Katy Perry. You might be confusing it with "California Gurls," which is by Katy Perry.
• Utada Hikaru didn't sing "Princess Mononoke's Main Theme", either. Vocals are provided by Yoshikazu Mera (Japanese version) or Sasha Lezard (English version).
  • For the record, Yoshikazu Mera is a man. Yeah.
• "Prom Night" is not by Rebecca Black. The actual artist is unknown, but Black claims it is not her song.
• "Proteus Syndrome", the aggro-EBM song with the lyric "The black hole in the sky', is not by Funker Vogt, but by Decoded Feedback. Funker Vogt's "Black Hole" is a completely different song.
• The '60s garage-rock hit "Psychotic Reaction" isn't by The Yardbirds; it's by One-Hit Wonder the Count Five. Kind of an understandable mistake, particularly because the fast "freakout" sections of the song were clearly modeled after the ending of The Yardbirds' version of "I'm A Man".
• The Butthole Surfers didn't perform "Pure Morning", that was Placebo. The song's drum loop and psychedelic guitar effects must remind some of The Butthole Surfers' Black Sheep Hit "Pepper". This is often both a case of this trope and Refrain from Assuming, because when it's attributed this way it tends to also be mistakenly referred to as "Friend With Weed" or "A Friend in Need".
• "Punk Rock Girl" is not by the Dead Kennedys, but by the Dead Milkmen.
  • Yellowcard never covered that song. You're probably looking for Diesel Boy.
• Neither Burl Ives nor Johnny Cash performed "(The) Purple People Eater"; that was the only hit for novelty singer and actor Sheb Wooley.
• The original and best-known version of "The Pushbike Song" is not by Mungo Jerry, but by Australian one hit wonders The Mixtures. It's not hard to see why this one took hold, as the arrangement pushes it close to being a Suspiciously Similar Song to Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime". A much later line-up of Mungo Jerry did eventually record a cover version, but it's comparatively obscure.
• The 80s version of "Putting on the Ritz" is not by Modern Talking or Talking Heads; it's by One-Hit Wonder Taco.
• "Put Your Records On" is not by Amy Winehouse; it's by Corinne Bailey Rae.
• The Quake II soundtrack is not by Nine Inch Nails, despite him scoring the first game. It's by Sonic Mayhem.
• Maria Callas never sang Queen of the Night's aria. This is performed by Lucia Popp.
• "Queen of Kings" is not by Ava Max (you're thinking of "Kings & Queens"), Bebe Rexha, or Dua Lipa, but by Norwegian-Italian singer Alessandra Mele, who represented Norway in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest.
• The Village People didn't perform "Que sera mi vida (If You Should Go)", that was French One-Hit Wonder group Gibson Brothers (not to be confused with The Bee Gees either).

R

• "Raided" is not by Janet Jackson. It was recorded by Salt Ashes in 2015, well after Janet had faded from the public spotlight.
• "Rain" (not "Rain Like This") is not by Shinedown, but by Creed. And still not by Pearl Jam, either.
• Rihanna never sang "Rapture (Tastes So Sweet)", that was iiO, and later Nadia Ali solo, with a 2010 remix by Avicii. The song was originally released in 2001, well before Rihanna started her musical career.
• "Rather Be" (not "No Place I'd Rather Be") is not by Adele or Rihanna, and "Rockabye" is not by Sia or Shakira. Both are by Clean Bandit; the former featuring Jess Glynne, the latter featuring Anne-Marie (oh, and Sean Paul).
• That "Read a Book" rap is not by Lil Jon; it's by Bomani "D'Mite" Armah. It's an easy mistake to make, though, given that Lil Jon's... distinctive rapping style is parodied perfectly. On the other hand, the singer identifies himself as D'Mite in the opening lines.
• "Reach Out" is not by Britney Spears. It's by Hilary Duff. She does sound an awful lot like Britney in this song, though.
• "Reach Out and Touch Me" is not by Katalina or Lil' Suzy, but by Angelina.
• "Read My Mind" is not by U2, but by The Killers.
• "Ready" is not by Rihanna, Britney Spears, or Lady Gaga. It's by Kirsten Collins.
• "Real Gone Kid" is not by Prefab Sprout, but rather by Deacon Blue. Same with "Dignity". Not to mention Wendy Smith from Prefab Sprout has a more helium-sounding voice when compared to Lorraine McIntosh.
• Billy Idol never covered Johnny O'Keefe's "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" — that was Iggy Pop.
• "The Reason", not "The Reason is You", is not by Simple Plan or Maroon 5. It's by Hoobastank.
• "Redbone" is not by Macy Gray. While you'd be forgiven for thinking the vocalist is female, it's actually performed by a man; Childish Gambino.
• "Redemption" (not "Surrender your Mind" or "The Same Old Song") is not by Depeche Mode, Simple Minds, or Tears for Fears; it's by Faith Assembly(not to be confused with Front Line Assembly either).
• The instrumental metal song "Redneck Stomp" is not by Godsmack. It's by Obituary, whose death metal sound is nothing like the alt-metal/hard rock of Godsmack. The fact that it sounds a lot like "Vampires" (which actually is an instrumental by Godsmack) doesn't help matters.
• Chicane did not have any songs on the Red Planet soundtrack. The offending song is "Dante's Eternal Flame" by Graeme Revell and Melissa Kaplan.
• "Red Red Wine":
  • That reggae cover is not by Bob Marley, it's by UB40. Marley had been dead for a year when the UB40 version was recorded, and for seven years by the time it actually became a #1 hit stateside. Furthermore, Marley didn't even drink alcohol.
  • To complicate matters, some people who are aware that UB40's cover is based on an earlier Jamaican version think that Marley did that one. It was Tony Tribe.
  • There are even a few people who insist that Marley was the original artist and that any version by Neil Diamond is a cover. No, Diamond was the original artist, though he did later start to perform it in UB40's style.
• "Reincarnate" is not by Breaking Benjamin, but rather Motionless in White. Chris Cerulli does sound an awful lot like Ben Burnley in this song, its chorus indeed resembles that of "I Will Not Bow", and it even borrows the "lie down sore and sick" line from "The Diary of Jane". It's possible it was an homage, as both bands are from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (MIW from Scranton, BB from Wilkes-Barre).
• "Release Me" was by Engelbert Humperdinck, not Tom Jones.
• "Remember the Name" and "Where'd You Go" are often misattributed to Linkin Park. They're actually by Fort Minor, the hip-hop side project of Linkin's Mike Shinoda.
• "Renegade Soundwave" is not by BT, but by the band Renegade Soundwave.
• "Renegades" is by X Ambassadors, not Imagine Dragons. Neither is "Unsteady", by the way. The two did collaborate however on "Sucker for Pain" from the Suicide Squad (2016) soundtrack.
• Neither Aviators nor Owl City covered the Pet Shop Boys song "Rent", that was Matt Mancid & Color Theory. Additionally, the backing vocalist on this cover is not Lights, but Heather Alden of Faded Paper Figures.
• "Replay" (not "A Melody in My Head") is not by Sean Kingston, but by Iyaz (although Kingston appeared in one of the remixes), an apprentice of Kingston.
  • "Solo" is also believed to be a Sean Kingston song, although it's once again Iyaz.
• "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass frequently gets misattributed to Aretha Franklin due to being in a gospel-influenced R&B style similar to Franklin's signature sound. Martha and the Vandellas is also a popular wrong guess.
  • Although, Aretha did parody the song in the 90s, as "Deliver Me", for a Pizza Hut Commercial.
  • Aretha also did not sing "It's Raining Men". That was the Weather Girls, neither of whom was Franklin.
  • Aretha Franklin also didn't cover Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac"; that was Natalie Cole. Understandable, since Cole kind of sounds like Franklin in the song, and the song itself was given a Shout-Out by Franklin in her song "Freeway of Love" (not to mention an actual pink Cadillac appears in the video for said song).
  • Neither Aretha, the Staple Singers, Johnnie Taylor nor the Pointer Sisters ever recorded "Mr. Big Stuff", which was actually by Jean Knight.
• "Return of The Mack" is not by Sting or Phil Collins, but by One-Hit Wonder Mark Morrison.
• Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam never covered Kenny Loggins' "Return to Pooh Corner".
• "Return to Innocence" is not by Enya, buy by Enigma. Also, the ethnic vocals are not a Native American chant, but Sampled Up from a cultural exchange recording of a Taiwanese aboriginal song entitled "Weeding and Paddy Field Song" or "Jubilant Drinking song", by Creator Couple Difang and Igay Duana from the Amis tribe.
• The techno-house song "Revolution" is not by (DJ) Sasha, but by Tall Sasha. Even iTunes got this wrong.
• "Reward" is not by Echo & the Bunnymen, The English Beat, or The Jam, but rather by The Teardrop Explodes.
• "Rhythm of the Night" is not by Gloria Estefan. It is by DeBarge. Also not to be confused with the similarly named Eurodance hit "The Rhythm of the Night". Speaking of...
• The vocalist on Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night" was not Rozalla or Sandra Chambers (who did sing the other songs in the eponymous album), but Giovanna Bersola AKA Jenny B.
• "Ride My Bike" (no relation to Queen's "Bicycle Race") is not by Aleph, Ken Laszlo, or Mike Mareen, but by a relatively obscure fellow Italo Disco artist, (Christian) Nóvé.
• "Ridin'", not "Tryin' To Catch Me Ridin' Dirty", is not by Three 6 Mafia, but by Chamillionaire f/ Krayzie Bone.
• "Ridin' Solo" is sometimes confused for being a Chris Brown song, but it was performed by Jason Derulo. (However, Chris Brown does a have a song called "Flyin' Solo".)
• "Right Here", i.e. the R&B girl group song that samples Michael Jackson's "Human Nature", is not by TLC; it's by SWV.
• "Right Here Waiting" isn't by Bryan Adams; it's by Richard Marx.
• "Right Now", not "Kick Me When I'm High", is not by Sum 41. It's by SR-71.
• Katy Perry isn't in Flo Rida's "Right Round". That's a not-yet-famous Kesha (who did not want to be credited in the song).
• "Ring Ding Ding", despite being a remix of the so-called "Annoying Thing" sound^note "2Taktare.MP3" by Daniel Malmedahl is not by Crazy Frog. It's by a Captain Ersatz called "Pondlife". To make matters worse, it came on the same label the Crazy Frog was on in the UK.
• "Rise Up" (as in, the 2016 song featured in The Birth of a Nation (2016) and turned talent show staple) is not by Adele. It's by Andra Day.
• That fun bouncy tropical-sounding song "Rock & Roll" with the chorus "If he wanna rock, he rocks/If he wanna roll, he rolls" isn't by Jason Mraz. It's by Eric Hutchinson.
  • "Come On Get Higher" is not Jason Mraz either; it's Matt Nathanson.
  • "Keep Your Head Up" is once again not Jason Mraz but Andy Grammer. The same thing can be said for Grammer's most recent hit "Honey I'm Good"
• "Robot Funk" is not by Daft Punk, but by fellow Electro House duo Codec & Flexor. You were thinking of "Robot Rock".
  • The 2005 electro-trance song "Rock" is not by Daft Punk either. It's by MYC, a collaboration between Cyrus Sadeghi-Wafa and Cascada producers DJ Manian & Yanou.
• "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" is not by Lou Reed. It's by Cake. And despite what you may think, it isn't Covered Up, either, despite many people who swear they first heard it in the early 1980s.
• "Rock Me Gently" isn't by Neil Diamond; that was Andy Kim.
  • "Nice to Be with You" isn't Neil Diamond either; it's by Gallery.
• the 80s version of "Rock On" is not by Billy Idol. It's by Michael Damian.
  • Likewise the original was not by David Bowie, but rather by David Essex.
• "Rock the Casbah" is not by Earth, Wind & Fire. It's by The Clash.
• "Rock You Like a Hurricane" is not by Judas Priest, Foreigner, Def Leppard or Whitesnake, but by the Scorpions.
• "The Rockafeller Skank" is not by The Chemical Brothers, and its title is not "Funk Soul Brother". It's by Fatboy Slim.
• The Love Theme of Romeo and Juliet (1968), composed by Nino Rota and arranged by Henry Mancini, is often confused with the love theme from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture", which is completely different.
• "Romeo's Tune" (the one that goes, "Meet me in the middle of the day, let me hear you say everything's okay") is not a Rod Stewart song. It's by Steven Forbert.
• "Room to Breathe" is not by Bring Me the Horizon or Asking Alexandria. It's You Me at Six.
• Cannibal Corpse never did a cover of Sepultura's song "Roots Bloody Roots." That was done by an unknown band called Razor (and not the Canadian thrash metal band Razor either)
• "Round and Round" is not by Mötley Crüe. It's by Ratt.
  • Keep in mind, Ratt, Ugly Kid Joe, and Vince Neil are not Mötley Crüe, though the latter is the Crue's lead singer.
• "Rubber Ball" is not by Buddy Holly. It was recorded by Bobby Vee two years after Holly's death.
• "Rubber Bullets" is not by The Beach Boys, but by 10cc.
• For some reason, a lot of people believe "Ruby Tuesday" is by The Beatles. It's actually by The Rolling Stones from their album Between the Buttons.
• The 1990s pop ballad "Runaway" is not by The Cranberries or Wilson Phillips. It's by The Corrs. Also not to be confused with the R&B/pop hit of the same name released the same year by Janet Jackson, or the Eurodance hit by The Real McCoy.
• "Run It" is not by Usher or Lil' Jon. It's the debut single of Chris Brown. It's also not by Jay Sean; you're thinking of "Ride It".
• The 1985 synthpop song "Running" is not by The Human League, but by Information Society with Murat Konar on vocals.
• "Running Free" is not by Alice Cooper, but by Iron Maiden.
• "Running Song" (not "What Am I Gonna Do Now?" or "I Come Running") is not by Alanis Morissette, The Cranberries, or 10,000 Maniacs. It's by One-Hit Wonder Ambersunshower(not to be confused with Amber).
• The 2019 cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" is not by Sia, but by Meg Myers.

S

• Transa did not remix Chicane's "Saltwater", that was Tomski. And the vocalist is not Enya, but her sister, Moya (Máire) Brennan.
  • Enya wasn't the vocalist of Rank 1's "Such is Life" either; that was fellow Irish singer Shanokee, AKA Penny McCleery.
• "Santa Baby" was not sung by Marilyn Monroe. That was Eartha Kitt, Madonna, or Kylie Minogue.
  • In the case of Madonna and Kylie, Monroe was dead for decades when those covers were released. In fact, when Monroe died, Madonna was a toddler and Kylie hadn't even been born yet!
• Defunct filesharing program Audiogalaxy used to list band's most downloaded songs on their system: The number one most downloaded "Devo" song by far? "Safety Dance", which is in fact by Men Without Hats.
  • It's also commonly mislabeled as being by Men at Work.
  • Speaking of Men Without Hats, INXS didn't do "Pop Goes the World" either.
• Basshunter did not remix Darude's "Sandstorm", that was a fan-made megamix of it and Lock n' Load's "Blow Your Mind".
• Neither Butthole Surfers nor Metallica performed "Satan", that was Orbital. The spoken word intro was, however, sampled from BHS's "Sweat Loaf", and Metallica's Kirk Hammett contributed to the remix on the Spawn soundtrack.
• That text to speech voice in Benny Benassi's song "Satisfaction" is not Stephen Hawking nor is it Microsoft Sam. It's a Macintosh text-to-speech voice.
• "Saturday Nite" (not to be confused with Whigfield's "Saturday Night") is not by Marvin Gaye, but by the British funk group The Brand New Heavies, 15 years after Gaye's death. It does, however, sample elements of "Got to Give It Up".
• U2 had nothing to do with "Save Me" (the theme from Smallville). That was Remy Zero.
• "Sausalito Summernight" was not performed by The Steve Miller Band. It was actually performed by a Dutch band named Diesel. ^note  Amusingly, and quite sweetly too, Steve Miller himself loved the song, Word of God saying that it was the best song of his that he never did!
• "Say It's Gonna Rain" is not by Gloria Estefan or Miami Sound Machine, but by Will to Power with Suzi Carr on lead vocals.
• "Say You Won’t Let Go" is not an Ed Sheeran Song, but rather one by The X Factor winner James Arthur.
• "School's Out (For Summer)" is not by Kiss, Twisted Sister, Pink Floyd, or The Ramones. That was Alice Cooper.
  • Kiss have played the song once during a sound check, though.
  • A cover attributed to Megadeth has also surfaced online, but it's really by that group's frontman Dave Mustaine.
  • AC/DC never covered the song either. That was Soul Asylum.
• "Scooby Snacks" isn't by the Bloodhound Gang. It's by the Fun Lovin' Criminals.
• "Scorched Blood" is not by Skinny Puppy or Ogre/OhGr, but by Xorcist.
• "Scotty Doesn't Know" (the song from Euro Trip) isn't by Sum 41. It's by Lustra (not to be confused with Lustral). And it's not by Matt Damon; he simply lip-syncs the song in the movie.
• "Seasons in the Sun" is not by Cat Stevens, The Byrds or the Mamas and the Papas. It's by One-Hit Wonder Terry Jacks.
  • blink-182 and Sum 41 haven't covered the song either. That was Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
• "Self Control" is not by Gloria Estefan, but by Laura Branigan covering Raf.
• "Selfish" (not "No Sense of Reason") is not by Ace of Base; it's by The Other Two, the side project of New Order keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and husband Stephen Morris.
• "Semi-Charmed Life" (not "I Want Something Else") is not by Matchbox Twenty. It's by Third Eye Blind.
• The popular version of "Send in the Clowns" from Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music was performed not by Judy Garland, but by Judy Collins. Garland had been dead for six years by the time Collins' version was released.
• Neither Pet Shop Boys nor Erasure covered Real Life's "Send Me an Angel". It's still Real Life. Probably misattributed because the 1989 remix resembles the PSB's style. (DJ) Keoki didn't cover it either; that was either Ravelab or Mythos 'n DJ Cosmo. And the 2006 dance cover is not by Cascada or Dyce, but by Novaspace.
  • And PSB did not remix New Order's "True Faith". The stylistic similarity comes from the fact that both remixer Shep Pettibone and original producer Stephen Hague also produced for PSB around the same time.
• "Send Me On My Way" is by Rusted Root not Talking Heads
• "Send My Love", the reggae-rap cover of Stevie Wonder's "Send One Your Love", is not by Max-A-Million, but by the Born Jamericans. Conversely, the similarly styled cover of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" is not by the Born Jamericans, but Max-A-Million. The latter cover is also often misattributed to Shaggy.
• "Sex and Candy" is not by Nirvana or Matchbox Twenty. It's by Marcy Playground. In fact, Kurt Cobain was dead when the song came out!
• "Shake It" was not done by Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects or Boys Like Girls. That would be Metro Station.
• The 1987 hip-hop song "Shake It" is not by Run–D.M.C. or 2 Live Crew, but by One-Hit Wonder MC Shy D.
• "Shape of You" is not by Justin Bieber, but by Ed Sheeran.
• Sia did not sing "Sharks in the Swimming Pool", that was Tennessean indie pop artist Clairity (later known as 7Chariot).
• "She's a Bad Mama Jama" is not by Rick James or Stevie Wonder, but by Carl Carlton.
• "She's a Beauty" is not by Rick Astley. It's by The Tubes.
• "She Blinded Me with Science" is not by Phil Collins, Howard Jones, Men at Work, or Sting. It's by One-Hit Wonder Thomas Dolby.
• "She Hates Me" is not by Nirvana, Nickelback or P.O.D. It's by Puddle of Mudd.
  • Likewise is the case with "Blurry." Which, by the way, is NOT called "Take It All Away".
  • Don't forget, neither song was out before Kurt Cobain killed himself.
• "Sheila" was not done by Buddy Holly. It's by Tommy Roe.
  • Roe's song was recorded three years after Holly's death, and was an intentional pastiche of "Peggy Sue". But younger listeners who encounter it on oldies radio can't be expected to know that.
• "She's On Fire", from Scarface (1983), is not by The Pointer Sisters. It's by Amy Holland. Likewise, the singer of "Scarface (Push it to the Limit)" is not Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, or Michael Sembello, but Paul Engemann.
• "She Wants You" is not by Britney Spears or Kylie Minogue, but by Billie Piper.
• "She's So High" is not by Everclear or Fastball. It's the only hit song by Tal Bachman, the son of The Guess Who's Randy Bachman.
• "Shine" and "December" are neither by Counting Crows nor the Black Crowes. They're both by Collective Soul.
• "Shine a Light", of 2003 Kohl's commercial fame, was not recorded by Electric Light Orchestra or Queen, but by The Apples In Stereo in 1998, two decades after ELO's heyday and seven years after Freddie Mercury's death.
• Daft Punk never recorded a song called "Shiny Disco Balls". You want Who Da Funk for that.
• “Short, Short Man” (also known as “Short Dick Man”) was not by Salt-N-Pepa. That was 20 Fingers & Gillette.
• "Shout" was not done by Depeche Mode. It's by Tears for Fears. Depeche Mode has, however, a song named Shout that's completely different from the Tears for Fears song. Also not to be confused with the Devo song of the same name.
• "Show Me" is not by Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Shana, or Cynthia. It was by The Cover Girls, at least three years before the latter two artists debuted.
• "Show Me Love" (the 1993 House Music hit) is not by CeCe Peniston, but by Robin S. (not to be confused with Robyn, who had a hit also called "Show Me Love" in 1997, which provided the English title of the hit Swedish film Fucking Åmal)
• "Shut Up and Dance" is not One Direction or Imagine Dragons; it's Walk the Moon.
• "Shut Up (and Sleep with Me)" is not by E-Rotic, but by Sin with Sebastian.
• "Signs" is not by The Doors, and its title is not "Long Haired Freaky People". It's by the Five Man Electrical Band. (Tesla didn't do it first.)
• "Silent Lucidity" is not by Pink Floyd; it's by Queensrÿche, similarities to "Comfortably Numb" notwithstanding.
  • It also wasn’t by Queen, despite similar band names.
• Master Blaster did not cover Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone", though they produced a completely different song of the same name. The dance cover is by The Real Booty Babes.
• "Sing Hallelujah" is not by Black Box, but by Dr. Alban.
• "Sister Seagull" was not by Jethro Tull. That was Be Bop Deluxe.
• Neither The Pointer Sisters nor Sister Sledge performed "Sisters and Brothers" from the children's album Free to Be... You and Me, that was The Voices of East Harlem, credited as Sisters 'n Brothers.
• The Hey Arnold! crew did not get Frank Sinatra to do Dino Spumoni's singing voice. He was in the last years of his life at that point, and he probably wouldn't have sounded like Dino did.
• A song claiming to be an unreleased Radiohead demo from the 90s titled "Putting Ketchup in the Fridge" surfaced on the Internet in 2011. There were even news articles written about the "leaked" song... which turned out to be a 2001 song called "Sit Still" by obscure Canadian singer-songwriter Christopher Stoba, who retired from music to run a bakery.
• "Six White Horses" is not a song by Johnny Cash. It's his brother Tommy. Admittedly, they do sound an awful lot alike.
• Erasure did not cover Jigsaw's "Sky High", that was Newton, AKA Billy Myers, not to be confused with Billie Myers (of "Kiss the Rain" fame).
• Paul McCartney did not cover ABBA's "Slipping Through My Fingers, that was Declan Mc Kenna.
• September never covered Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy". That version was by Kate Ryan. September did, however, interpolate the main riff of "Smalltown Boy" in "Cry For You" (mentioned below).
  • Chris Isaak never covered "Smalltown Boy" either, that was Bronski Beat's own Unplugged Version, with Steve Bronski taking over vocal duties in the absence of Jimmy Somerville.
  • The industrial cover of "Smalltown Boy" is not by Blutengel, KMFDM, or Ministry, but by Plastic Noise Experience.
• Bob Marley never recorded "Smoke Two Joints". It was recorded by The Toyes before Sublime covered it up. Bob Marley died a few years before the song was written.
• Alice Cooper did not perform the original "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" (which Mötley Crüe later Covered Up). That was Brownsville Station.
• Linkin Park never covered Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", that was Alien Ant Farm.
• "Snortin' Whiskey" is not by Kiss. It's by Pat Travers.
  • "Woman from Tokyo" is also not from Kiss. That was by Deep Purple.
• "So In Love With You" is not by Bronski Beat, the Communards, or Jimmy Somerville, but by Newcastle-born One-Hit Wonder Duke, though the falsetto vocal style he uses on this song does sound similar to Somerville's.
• "So Many Men, So Little Time" is not by Donna Summer, The Pointer Sisters, or Whitney Houston. That was Canadian expat singer-actress Miquel Brown, the mother of '80s pop star Sinitta.
• "Some Body" (two words, begins with the lyric "If I could see your face") is not by Salt Ashes, but by Jonna Lee (ionnalee). Salt Ashes' "Somebody" (one word) is different, though stylistically similar.
• "Somebody to Love" (the 1967 song) is not by Janis Joplin. It's by Jefferson Airplane.
• "Somebody's Watching Me" is not by Michael Jackson, but by Rockwell; though Jackson did sing the chorus.
  • The actual verses of the song sound nothing like Michael Jackson, though. That part oftens gets misattributed to Prince.
• "Somebody That I Used to Know" is not by Sting, it's Gotye (similarities to "Can't Stand Losing You" and "King of Pain" notwithstanding).
  • It's also not a Peter Gabriel song.
• The Ramones did not cover "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". That was Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
• "Somebody Told Me" is not by Fall Out Boy, it is by The Killers.
  • But "Can't Deny My Love" is by Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, and not Alphaville.
• Rick Astley never sang "Something About You". That song is by Level 42, who sound nothing like him.
• "Song 2" (not "Woo-Hoo!") is not by Gorillaz — it released a year before they had formed — but by Damon Albarn's other major band, Blur. It has been performed at Gorillaz concerts, however. It's certainly not by Nirvana, either.
• "A Song Long Ago" is not by Kristine, the Greek synthwave artist, but by Anders Enger Jensen featuring Kristine Froberg, who are both Norwegian. One may confuse it with the Greek Kristine's "Summer Long Gone".
• "Sound of Da Police" is not by Cypress Hill, Kris Kross, Mystikal, or Onyx. It's by KRS-One.
• "Space Oddity" (not "Ground Control to Major Tom", not to be confused with the '80s Answer Song "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling) is not a Beatles song with John Lennon on vocals. That was David Bowie on Space Oddity.
  • Same case with "Changes".
  • On the subject of John Lennon, he did not sing "Valotte", "Too Late for Goodbyes", or any other song off his son Julian's album Valotte, which was released nearly four years after his death.
  • On the subject of Julian Lennon, "Saltwater" (not related to the Chicane song) is not a long-lost Beatles song, and the George Harrison-style guitar solo was played by Steve Hunter.
• "Spanish Stroll" can easily be attributed to Lou Reed or the Velvet Underground. It was done by Mink DeVille.
• Ferry Corsten did not remix Tiesto's "Sparkles" or "Nyana". The former was remixed by both Airscape and Transa, whose styles were similar to Ferry's at the time, while the latter mislabeling is an original song by Ferry titled "Sweet Sorrow".
• "Spend My Time Losing You" is not by Annie, but by fellow Norwegian diva Maya Vik.
• "Spill the Wine" is not a Rolling Stones or Animals song. It's by Eric Burdon (The Animals’ frontman) and War.
• "Spirit in the Sky" is not by The Beach Boys, The Eagles, Queen, or ZZ Top. It's by One-Hit Wonder Norman Greenbaum.
• "Squeeze Toy" is not by Toybox or the Vengaboys, but by the Boomtang Boys.
• David Essex was not the guy who did "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", and it's not Foreigner. It was actually John Parr.
• Bowling for Soup did not write or perform that song "Stacy's Mom". That would be dueling artist and One-Hit Wonder Fountains of Wayne. BFS would eventually cover the song in response to the frequent misattribution.
• Jimi Hendrix did not cover "Stairway to Heaven". That version was by Frank Zappa on The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life.
  • Especially as, you know, Hendrix was dead when "Stairway" was first recorded, let alone covered.
  • And Apocalyptica did not make a string version of the song. That was by the Vitamin String Quartet
  • The Doors also never covered "Stairway to Heaven" — it would have been impossible for them to do so with Jim Morrison on vocals anyway, since he died several months before the original song was even released (Unless...). What you're actually hearing is a tribute band called The Australian Doors Show, who were one of many artists who performed the song In the Style of another artist for the tv show The Money or the Gun.
  • Pink Floyd didn't cover "Stairway to Heaven" in a collaboration with Led Zeppelin — that was actually Far Corporation.
• "Stand By Me" is not by Otis Redding, but Ben E. King, not to be confused with B.B. King. (Redding did cover the song three years later.)
  • The Beatles, however, never covered "Stand By Me". That would be solo John Lennon.
• "Starchild" was not by Dune, but by a group called Starchild, some time after Dune had broken up.
• the trance track "Starlight" that sounds similar to System F's aforementioned "Out of the Blue" is not by Ferry Corsten or any of his aliases, but by Rocco & Heist. Corsten did, however, remix an unrelated song also titled "Starlight" by Desiderio.
• "Stars", not "We'll Take Our Hearts Outside" or "Watch The Stars Go Out", is not by Björk, The Cranberries, Dido, Enya, Olive, or Portishead, but by One-Hit Wonder group Dubstar. Also not to be confused with "I See Stars" by fellow one-hit wonder Robin Fox.
• Corey Vidal did not sing, or write, the "Star Wars (John Williams is The Man)" video that made him famous. He was lip-synching to the work of a comedy/a cappella group, Moosebutter. (To be fair, Moosebutter were quite obscure before Corey's video went viral and tripled their publicity.)
• Shaggy did not cover Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs' "Stay", that was Dreamhouse.
• The rap version of The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" is not by Snap!, but by N-Trance. Same goes for "Turn Up the Power", whose title may be confused with Snap!'s unrelated "The Power".
• "Stay in the Dark" is not by Katy Perry, but by The Band Perry (no relation).
• The song "Steal Away" was never recorded by Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Rupert Holmes, or any of the other well-known yacht rockers. That was one-hit wonder Robbie Dupree. The song's keyboard line is suspiciously similar to "What a Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers, which did have McDonald on lead vocals at the time.
• "Still Alive", the theme tune from Mirror's Edge, not to be confused with the theme from Portal, is not by Lisa Gerrard or Sarah McLachlan, but by Swedish singer Lisa Miskovsky.
• "Still of the Night" (not "In the Still of the Night") is not by Led Zeppelin, but by Whitesnake, if anyone ignores the 1980s production of the song. The fact that David Coverdale channels Robert Plant so much in the song has led Plant to sarcastically refer to Coverdale as "David Cover Version". Also, Led Zeppelin had been dissolved by seven years the time "Still of the Night" came out. Coverdale did later collaborate with Jimmy Page in the ‘90s.
• Steely Dan did not do "Still the One". The very idea they would ever do something that optimistic is laughable. The song is actually by Orleans (off this album. Yes, they are all wearing pants. Also, the lead singer was a future US Representative).
• "Stickwitu" is not by Mariah Carey. It's by The Pussycat Dolls.
• "Stitches" is not by Ed Sheeran. It's Shawn Mendes.
• "Storm in Our Hearts" is not by Heart, Louise Goffin, or Roxette, but by Kim Wilde. Doesn't help that it's a Power Ballad that sounds nothing like Kim's traditional style.
• Neither Marky Mark nor Will Smith performed the rap in Black Box's "Strike It Up". That was either Oscar Pabon (in the album version) or Leo Bennett "Stepz" Thompson (in the video and remix). Doesn't help that Thompson bore a fair resemblance to Smith during his Fresh Prince years.
• "Stroboid Over" is not by The KLF, Snap!, or Technotronic, but by Formicula 4. To further add to the confusion, D. Droit, the rapper in the vocal version, was a member of a group called Technotropic.
• "Stuck in the Middle With You" is not by Bob Dylan. It's by Stealers Wheel, though Gerry Rafferty's vocal performance borrows from Dylan's style. Rafferty co-wrote the song with Joe Egan about the record industry's drinking parties, which might actually be a larger part of why it's misattributed to him; that can't not be the subject of a Dylan song, right?
  • It's not by Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Steve Miller Band either.
• "Stumblin' In" isn't a Sonny & Cher song. It's actually a duet by Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro.
• "Stylophonia" is not by 2 Unlimited or 2 Bad Mice. It's by one-track wonders Two Little Boys.
• the Eurodance song "Sugar Daddy" was not by The Real McCoy, but by the Bingo Boys (not to be confused with the later Vengaboys).
• "Sultans of Swing" is not by Bob Dylan, either. That's by Dire Straits from their debut Dire Straits.
  • Likewise, Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" is not sung by Bruce Springsteen.
  • Not to mention, "Money for Nothing" from Brothers in Arms.
• "Summer of '69" isn't a Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp song. It's by Bryan Adams (who sounds nothing like Springsteen anyway, singing-wise).
  • However, Springsteen has covered Adams' "Cuts Like a Knife".
  • The pop punk cover isn't by Green Day or NOFX; but by either MxPx, Home Grown, or Bowling for Soup.
• "Summertime, Summertime" is not by Exposé, Gloria Estefan, or Madonna, but by Italian-born freestyle diva Nocera.
• "Superfly" and "Isolate" from the ATV Offroad Fury soundtrack are not by Creed, no matter how much the singer sounds like Scott Stapp. They're by Bender (no, not that Bender. Or that Bender either).
• "Sunrise", the 2005 vocal trance hit, not to be confused with countless others of the same name, is not by Ian Van Dahl or Above & Beyond. It's by 4 Strings.
• "Super Freak" is by Rick James. NOT James Brown!
  • Oh, and by the way, it's not by MC Hammer either. He just Sampled it Up.
• Neither "Superhero" nor "Together Forever (The Cyber Pet Song)" (not "I'm Your Tamagotchi") are by Ace of Base. Both are by the Danish Europop group Daze.
• "Superman (It's Not Easy)" is not by Train or Coldplay, it's by Five For Fighting (who a lot of people also mistake to be a group).
• Back to the Five For Fighting song, another song called "Superman" of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater fame isn't by Less Than Jake. It's by Goldfinger.
• "Supernatural" was not by Mariah Carey or S Club 7, but by Wild Orchid, the girl group that Fergie was in prior to joining The Black Eyed Peas.
• "Supernova Goes Pop" isn't by Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Pitch Shifter, or Rob Zombie. It's by Powerman 5000 (whose lead singer is the latter's brother).
• "Surf City" wasn't by The Beach Boys. That was, once again, by Jan and Dean. Confusion is particularly understandable here, given that The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson co-wrote the song and sang backup vocals on it.
• The 1964 hit "Suspicion" isn't by Elvis Presley, but by One-Hit Wonder Terry Stafford.
  • This song kind of straddles the line between this and Covered Up. Elvis himself did record it first, for his 1962 album Pot Luck with Elvis. However, Stafford's cover was the actual hit, and the one that's most commonly head on oldies radio.
    • The label that produced it hired Stafford for being an Elvis sound-alike. Reportedly, it fooled Grace Presley herself.
• "Sussudio" (not "She'll Sue You") is not by Prince, but by Phil Collins, although he admitted it was inspired by Prince songs such as "1999".
• "Sweat" (not "A La La La La Long") is not by Bob Marley. In fact, the song was released about a decade after the singer's passing. The song is actually by Inner Circle. However, the singer's vocals sound eerily close to Marley's, possibly lending to the confusion.
• "Sweet But Psycho" is not by Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Bebe Rexha, or Rita Ora. It's by Ava Max. "Kings & Queens" isn't by any of them either. It's still Ava Max. She has been heavily compared to early-career Gaga and is of Albanian descent like the latter three artists.
• "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" is not by Culture Club or Madonna. It's by the Eurythymics.
• "Sweet Surrender" is not by kd lang or Céline Dion. It's by fellow Canadian Sarah McLachlan.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Van Halen did not do the song "Sweet Victory" from "Band Geeks". Neither did KISS, Queen, Journey, Michael Bolton, or John Parr. The song is by David Glen Eisley, a member of a one-hit wonder 80s band called Giuffria. To be fair, Bob Kulick, the producer and one of the musicians who played on that song, was a member of KISS for a while. And as for Queen, note that this song came out long after Freddie Mercury's death.
  • "That's What Friends Do" from "Wormy" is not by REO Speedwagon or Spin Doctors.
• The "Symphony No. 7" you're thinking of most likely is not by Mozart, but by Beethoven.
• "Synthicide" is not by Berlin, The Go-Go's, Kim Wilde, Missing Persons, or Nena. It's by SSQ, the backing band of Stacey Q. And Roxi Drive didn't do it first.

T

• The 1980s version of "Tainted Love" is not by The Cure, The Clash, Midnight Oil, Depeche Mode, The Eurythmics, INXS, The Ramones, Culture Club, or Billy Idol. That's by Soft Cell.
  • Bad Religion never covered "Tainted Love". That would be Shades Apart.
  • And the original version was not by Gloria Gaynor or The Supremes, but Gloria Jones.
  • Throbbing Gristle didn't cover it either; that was Coil, the duo of TG founder Peter Christopherson and Psychic TV bandmate John Balance.
• The Kinks never produced a song called "Take a Look at My Girlfriend". That's "Breakfast in America" by fellow Brit rock band Supertramp.
  • Likewise, Gym Class Heroes didn't do "Breakfast in America." They only sampled it up for "Cupid's Chokehold." That cover itself is often misattributed to Fall Out Boy. Patrick Stump does sing the chorus to that but it's not FOB's song.
• "Take Me To The Top", the hard dance song that uses the tune of Taylor Dayne's "Tell It To My Heart", is not by Cascada, but by DJ Yanny(Jan Miesner), whose artist name may be confused with Cascada co-founder Yanou(Yann Pfeiffer).
• Apoptygma Berzerk never covered A Ha's "Take on Me", that was Anglo-Norwegian group A1. APB did record a similarly-styled cover of Peter Schilling's aforementioned "Major Tom", though.
• LMFAO and Rihanna did not make "Take Over Control". That would be Afrojack and Eva Simons.
• Neither Aerosmith nor Van Halen did "Taking Care of Business", that was Bachman Turner Overdrive.
• Speaking of bubblegum dance, "Tarzan and Jane" isn't by Aqua, it's by Toy-box. Yes, we know they sound almost exactly alike; trust us, it's not Aqua — really.
  • Some people even believe Toy-box performed "Barbie Girl". Now that WAS Aqua.
• "Take The Bullets Away" is not by Skillet, but by fellow Christian rock band We as Human.
• "Tango Japan" is not by Murray Head (although it kind of sounds like "One Night in Bangkok"), Yellow Magic Orchestra, Alphaville(you're thinking of "Big in Japan"), or My Mine(who did "Hypnotic Tango"). It's by Belgian New Beat artist Al Onzo.
• "Techno-Syndrome" from Mortal Kombat: The Movie is not by KMFDM or 2 Unlimited. That was The Immortals.
• "Teen Planet" is not by Devo, though it sounds just like them. It's by Patrick Cowley, of all people, with Michael Finden on vocals.
• "Telephone Operator" is not by Bauhaus; it's by Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks.
• Kirsty MacColl never recorded the folk song known as "Tell Me Ma" or "Belle of Belfast City". The version commonly misattributed to her is by Sham Rock and the vocalist is Anne Barrett, who sounds nothing like her.
• The 1991 song "Temptation" is not by Shannon or Lisa Stansfield. It's by One-Hit Wonder Corina.
• "Tequila" (of Pee Wee fame) is not a Ritchie Valens song. It's by the Champs. Probably because it is a Spanish-titled song whose name sounds somewhat like "La Bamba"
• That ska version of the Tetris theme is not by The Toasters or Mr. Bungle. To make things even more confusing, there are several different ska versions of the theme; one's by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, the other is by Melting Pot.
• "That's Not My Name" is not by Avril Lavigne, it just sounds like it. It's by the Ting Tings.
  • Which makes the title kind of ironic, now that you mention it.
  • This also makes one wonder how anyone could confuse the two, since they sound nothing alike and have completely different (and very noticeable) accents (Avril Lavigne is Canadian, the Ting Tings are British). Maybe someone just thought the rhythm sounded vaguely similar to Avril's "Girlfriend" though?
• "The Age of Love" is not by Enigma or The KLF. It's by the one-off Swiss duo Age of Love, with a remix by Jam & Spoon.
• "The Bouncer", not "Your Name's Not Down", is not by The Prodigy, but by One-Hit Wonder breakbeat duo Kicks Like A Mule.
• The memetic "The Chicken Wing Song" had this happen three times. Originally by an unknown artist, the song went through so much Memetic Mutation and poor crediting that said unknown artist may never be fully found. To summarize;
  • The first real version of it by an artist that can be traced back is a remix by a user named leonkrpd, who uploaded the song to YouTube, consisting of the tune repeated to a beat, with a final variation at the very end without any backing audio. The artist notably refuses to mention just who he's remixing the song from, which doesn't quite help the unknown artist out.
  • The remix of the version of it without backing audio by leonkrpd became a meme on—of all things—Flipnote Hatena, the online sharing service for the Nintendo DSi's Flipnote Studio around 2011; with no mention of the original artist nor leonkrpd, since Flipnote Hatena didn't have a description system, and the original creator of the Flipnote that spread it made no mention of either of the artists. The song was also higher-pitched and at a higher tempo in this version, making use of Flipnote Hatena's own speed changing system. Upon Flipnote Hatena shutting down, it more or less went dormant...
  • Until late 2020, where it saw a resurgence on TikTok due to a cover by one Ricky Desktop, and found itself attributed to him, completely separate from the original artist, leonkrpd, and Flipnote Hatena. To date, the original artist has not yet been properly traced back, because nobody can actually tell just who the original artist is after the long chain of mis-attribution the jingle went through. Ouch.
• "The Child (Inside)" is not by The Cranberries. It's by South African One Hit Wonders Qkumba Zoo.
  • "U" is not a Cranberries song either, nor was it produced or remixed by David Guetta. It's by Gareth Emery featuring Bo Bruce.
• "The Climb" is not by Taylor Swift. It's by Miley Cyrus, for Hannah Montana The Movie (Swift had her own contribution to the soundtrack, "Crazier").
• "The Dragon Flies" is not by Darude or Armin Van Buuren. It's by Vensun (David Vendetta + Sylvia Tosun).
• "The First Night" is not by Mýa, but by Monica. Mýa's "My First Night With You", released the same year, is a completely different song.
• "The Launch" is not by DJ Dean, but by DJ Jean(using the French pronunciation).
• Raffi never performed "The Lollipop Tree" or "Two Little Trains"; those were by Burl Ives. Roger Miller's "Old Toy Trains", which Raffi covered on his Christmas album, is completely different from the latter. Conversely, Ives never covered Malvina Reynolds' "Morningtown Ride", but Raffi did.
• "The Longest Time" is not by the Carpenters, but by Billy Joel. Karen Carpenter died a year before the song came out. Not to mention the song featured entirely male vocals.
• "The Only Way Is Up" is not by Yazoo(known as Yaz in the US), but by Yazz(two z's) & The Plastic Population.
• "The Power" is not by The Notorious B.I.G., but by Snap!.
• "The Prize" and "Back in the Day" are not by Oscillator X, but by Information Society. Conversely, "Singularity" and "Every Moment" are not by Information Society, but by Oscillator X.
• "The Promise" is not by The Human League or New Order, but by One-Hit Wonder When in Rome, who, like the latter band, hailed from the Manchester area.
• "The Right Time" is not by Lisa Stansfield, but by I to I. Stansfield's "This Is The Right Time" is a completely different song.
• "The Roof is On Fire" is not by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, but by Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three. And The Bloodhound Gang didn't do it first.
  • The Bloodhound Gang's version, "Fire Water Burn", is sometimes miscredited to Cake.
• Nelly Furtado did not sing "The Sweet Escape", that was Gwen Stefani.
• The Pointer Sisters had nothing to do with the soundtrack of The Terminator. Said songs were by the Fake Band Tahnee Cain and The Tryanglz, though one of them, "Burning in the Third Degree", is similar to the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited". As for the main theme and underscore, that was not by Vangelis(you're thinking of the Blade Runner soundtrack), but Brad Fiedel.
• "There She Goes" isn't by Third Eye Blind. It's by The La's.
• "There You Go" was not by Destiny's Child, En Vogue, Lil' Kim, or Blu Cantrell. It was by a pre-fame P!nk, imitating black contemporary R&B at the time.
• "The Touch" from The Transformers: The Movie is not by Huey Lewis and the News, Survivor, or Van Halen. It's by Stan Bush, and was his only notable song. And the movie version of the series theme is not by Cheap Trick or White Lion, but by the short-lived Los Angeles metal band Lion.
• "The Tower That Ate People" is not by Billy Idol or Nine Inch Nails, but by Peter Gabriel.
• Pink Floyd never covered "There's No Way Out of Here" by Unicorn, that's from the first solo album of David Gilmour.
• Neither Bella Morte nor The Cruxshadows nor Interface performed "Think", that was Information Society, with a cover version by Nivek Tek feat. Ange Lloyd.
• "This Beat is Hot" is not by The KLF, MC Hammer, C&C Music Factory or Snap!. It's by B.G. The Prince of Rap.
• The Ink Spots never performed "This is Romance"; the recording most stylistically similar to them was by Al Bowlly (of "Heartaches" fame, though The Caretaker never sampled this version, that was either Hal Kemp or Ted Fio Rito) with the Ray Noble Orchestra.
• Tom Waits and Peter Murphy never did an Anti-Christmas Song duet entitled "This Holiday Season" (not "Christmas Sucks") — it's by Porn Orchard and features deliberate (and good) impressions of both.
• While Nat King Cole recorded a number of Christmas Songs, "This Time of Year" is not one of them. That one is actually by Brook Benton.
• "Thor (The Thundergod)" is not by Sonata Arctica, but by obscure Swedish band Zonata. Their similar names, combined with the fact that Zonata never really hit it big as a band, are responsible for the confusion.
• "A Thousand Miles" is by Vanessa Carlton, not Michelle Branch or Jewel; and "Everywhere" is by Michelle, not Vanessa. Yes, people tend to get these two confused...
• This video resulted in a somewhat odd case of this trope. It's a fanmade music video for "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri that for some reason pairs the song with footage from Taylor Swift music videos. Although the uploader herself averts this trope, as in the description she credits Perri and clarifies that she never intended to imply Swift was the artist, some people who saw the video assumed the latter was the performer anyway. One such person was this SoundCloud user, who not only credited the song to Swift but also mistitled it "I Have Died Everyday Waiting for You" and when informed the song was not by Swift responded "yeah it is. look on YouTube".
• "Through it All" is not a Linkin Park song. It's by From Ashes to New. The rap/lead singer combo would already be enough to get any song labeled a Linkin Park song, but given they have soundalikes to both Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, it makes it especially confusing.
• "Through Glass" is not by Slipknot, but rather Stone Sour, the other group fronted by Corey Taylor.
• Five Finger Death Punch never covered "The Thunder Rolls". All That Remains did, however, although you may also be thinking of a 2010 cover by the obscure group Overscene. Also, don’t say ATR did the Overscene version either.
• "Ticket to the Tropics" (the 1985 ballad) is not by Billy Joel, George Michael, Sergio Mendes, or Taco. It's by Dutch Eurovision contestant Gerard Joling.
• Ticking In My Head (Got No Time) sounds like it might have been a song by The Police, but no: it's actually by Joe Jackson.
• "Time In a Bottle" is a classic by Jim Croce. Gordon Lightfoot neither wrote nor covered it.
• "Time of the Season" is not by The Beatles. It's by the Zombies.
• Raekwon did not perform "Tipsy". It's by the similarly-named one-hit wonder star J-Kwon.
• Enya didn't have anything to do with the soundtracks of Braveheart or Titanic (1997), though James Horner was consciously aping her style in places.
• "Toast and Marmalade for Tea" wasn't by The Bee Gees, but by Tin Tin (although Maurice Gibb did produce the single and play bass on it).
  • Speaking of Marmalade, the song "Reflections of My Life" by The Marmalade is not called "All My Sorrows" and is also not by the Bee Gees.
• "To Be With You" is not by Extreme, Foreigner or Tesla. It's by Mr. Big.
• "Toca Me" (and by extension the vocal mashup "Toca's Miracle") is not by Paul van Dyk, ATB, or Nalin & Kane. It's by Fragma.
  • "Welcome to the Dance" is also not by PVD, but by Des Mitchell.
  • Fragma's "You Are Alive" may also be misatributed to PVD, who produced a similar song titled "We Are Alive".
• Ne-Yo didn't sing "Together". That was Lee Carr.
• "Together Again" (the 2000 Eurotrance one) is not by Aqua, but by Sash! featuring Danish singer Blå Øjne(Julie Rugaard).
• "Tom's Diner" is not by Dido. It's actually by Suzanne Vega (nearly a decade before Dido's first album), with the most well known version being a remix by DNA.
• “Tonight Is The Night” is not by La Bouche. It’s by Le Click. La Bouche’s female singer Melanie Thornton singing the chorus and its inclusion on the US version of their debut album possibly caused the confusion.
  • Unlike La Bouche, they were also NOT managed by Frank Farian, as this would’ve meant their music came out on MCI rather than Hansa. Same can be said for Real McCoy and similar German eurodance groups.
• "Torn" (not "I'm All Out of Faith") is not by Alanis Morissette, Saint Etienne, No Doubt, The Cardigans, or Sixpence None the Richer; it's by Natalie Imbruglia covering up Ednaswap.
• Juliana Hatfield did not record a song called "Tortured". Canadian singer Annette Ducharme did.
• "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is not by Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Kim Carnes, Taylor Dayne, Air Supply(!) or Pat Benatar. The original is by Bonnie Tyler, while the '90s cover is by Nicki French.
• "Touch It" is not by Aaliyah, INOJ, or Mýa. That was One-Hit Wonder Monifah. Also, the male rapper is not Timbaland, but Jack Knight.
• The "Toy Symphony" is not by Joseph Haydn, but by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• VNV Nation did not do "Tragic Hero;" that was Funker Vogt.
  • "Virgin Superstar" isn't VNV either. That was And One.
• "Trebles" (the one that goes "trebles tatatatatata") is not by East West Rockers. It's by M Brother.
• The progressive trance track "Trip To Heaven" is not by BT, Orbital, or Sasha, but by Blue Amazon.
• The song "Troublemaker" ^note Not the one by Weezer is not by Maroon 5. It's by Olly Murs featuring Flo Rida. It does bear a strong resemblance to Maroon 5's "Misery," so this is why people have been confusing it.
• The song "True" (famously featured in Sixteen Candles, and later sampled by PM Dawn on "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss") is not by Tears For Fears, and it's not by Anson Williams of Happy Days either. It's by Spandau Ballet, seriously. Roland Orzabal and Tony Hadley sound quite a bit alike, though.
• The vocalist on the bootleg mashup "True Love Never Dies on the Airwaves" by Rank 1 was not Kylie Minogue, but Claire from Steps. The original singer of "True Love Never Dies" was Donna Williams.
• "Try It(I'm In Love With A Married Man)" is not by Romeo Void, but Oh Romeo, the duo of producer Bobby Orlando and vocalist Tammy Quinn. And the Pet Shop Boys didn't do it first(though Bobby O. worked with them in their early years).
• The synthpop duo Iris do not have a song called "Trust". The song title is "Iris", while the artist is TR/ST. Doesn't help that it stylistically sounds alot like Iris the band.
• "Tubthumping" is not by Smash Mouth, but Chumbawamba (not "Chumbawumba").
  • Of course if you know that the song really is called "Tubthumping" and not "I Get Knocked Down", you might already know who really performed it.
• "Turn Me Out" is not by Aretha Franklin, but by Praxis (later Soul Brothers) featuring Kathy Brown, although it is a Suspiciously Similar Song to "R.E.S.P.E.C.T.".
• "Turn off the Light" is not by Rihanna. It's by Nelly Furtado, and was released in 2000, 3 years before Rihanna's musical debut.
• "Turn The Beat Around" was not by the Pointer Sisters or Sister Sledge. That was either One-Hit Wonder Vicki Sue Robinson, or Gloria Estefan.
• "Turn Up the Radio" was not by Def Leppard. It's by Autograph.
• The punk cover of "Turning Japanese" is not by Incubus but by No Use for a Name.
• That disco rendition of the Twilight Zone theme With Lyrics is not by Diana Ross or Gloria Gaynor. It's by The Manhattan Transfer ("Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone").
  • The Twilight Zone theme itself is sometimes misattributed to Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann did write the theme song used in the show's first season, a moody orchestral piece that wouldn't have sounded out of place in his score for Vertigo, but starting in season 2 it was scrapped in favor of a theme cobbled together from two short pieces that Marius Constant contributed to the CBS production music library, starting with the four-note guitar riff that everyone knows.
• "The Twist" and "Let's Twist Again" are not by Chuck Berry, but by Chubby Checker.
• "Twister", the tech-trance song that samples the line "It's a twister!" from The Wizard of Oz, is not by Scooter, but by Storm Chasers, a one-off project of freestyle dance producer Joey Gardner.
• "Two of Hearts" is not by Kylie Minogue. It's by Stacey Q. And the 2000s cover is not by Sally Shapiro, but by Annie.
• Sarina Paris did not sing "Two Times", that was Ann Lee, AKA Annerley Gordon.

U-V

• "U Gotta Be" (not to be confused with Des'ree's "You Gotta Be") is not by Alice Deejay, but by Alex Party.
• Céline Dion did not sing "Un-Break My Heart", that was Toni Braxton.
• "Unbelieveable" is not by INXS or Jesus Jones, but by EMF.
• "Under The Milky Way" is not by The Cure, New Order, or U2, but by The Church. The female-voiced speed garage cover is not by Dido, Everything but the Girl, Moloko, or Olive, but by Shining Path.
• "Undercover Angel" is not a Donny Osmond song. It's by One-Hit Wonder Alan O'Day.
• Marilyn Manson didn't put out a song titled "Uprising". That's actually Muse. If you're wondering how in the world anyone could make that mistake, the intros to "Uprising" and "The Beautiful People" are kinda similar.
• "Vanna, Pick Me a Letter" is not by Cheech & Chong. It’s by Dr. Dave (apparently doing a Cheech Marin impression).
• Making this trope Older Than Radio, Johannes Brahms wrote "Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn" based on a tune (St. Anthony Chorale) that subsequent research has shown Haydn didn't write.
• "Vehicle" is not by Chicago; it's by the Ides of March, who are also from Chicago.
• Reel Big Fish, The Offspring and Weezer never covered "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, but The Presidents of the United States of America did. Radiohead, Violent Femmes and Pixies never covered it either.
• "Vilify" is not by Disturbed, but by David Draiman's side-project group Device.
• "Vodka Fisa", the 2004 Speedy Techno Remake of "Korobeiniki" AKA the Tetris theme, is not by Basshunter, but by the Italian One-Book Author Lesi Ortestral. Basshunter did later produce his own rendition of "Korobeiniki" titled "Plane to Spain".
• "Voices" (not "Cries in the Dark") isn't a song by Maaya Sakamoto. It's by Akino Arai. The confusion possibly comes from the fact that it was composed by Yoko Kanno, who frequently works with Sakamoto.
• "Voices" (Randy Orton's theme song) was not by Rev Theory, but by Rich Luzzi (Rev Theory's lead singer). The original album version was credited to solely Rich Luzzi, but the later single release credited Rev Theory as a whole.
• "Voices" (not "Four Voices") is not a Beatles song, nor is it even by Electric Light Orchestra. It's by Cheap Trick.

W

• "Waiting For A Star To Fall" is not a Starship song. It's by Boy Meets Girl.
• The song "Wake Me" is not a bootleg Alice in Chains demo. It's by Grey Daze, Chester Bennington's old band.
• "Wake Up" is not by Kesha, and definitely not by The Corrs. It's Hilary Duff.
  • "Waking Up in Vegas" was not by Ke$ha either, it was by Katy Perry, a year before anyone heard of Ke$ha.
• "Walking in Memphis" is not by Billy Joel. It's not by Michael McDonald either, nor is it by Bruce Springsteen or Michael Bolton. It's by Marc Cohn. Or Lonestar, depending on the version you're hearing.
• "Walking In the Sky" is not by Ian Van Dahl(you're thinking of "Castles In The Sky"), Lasgo, or September, but by DJ Encore featuring Engelina(not to be confused with Angelina).
• "Walking on Sunshine" is not by the Pointer Sisters or Carly Simon. It's by Katrina & the Waves.
• "Walk on Water" is not by Imagine Dragons, despite its similarity to "Radioactive". It's by Thirty Seconds to Mars.
• "Walk the Dinosaur" is not by Sly and the Family Stone, but by Was (Not Was). This misattribution occurs because "Walk the Dinosaur" is a popular funk song, and SATFS was a pioneering funk group.
• "The Walls Came Down" is not by Talking Heads. It's by The Call.
• "Wardens" was written neither by Hat Films nor the Tin Box Boys. Alex "Smiffy" Smith, who was in both the gaming group and bluegrass band, simply recorded the song as a rough demo on his own.
• "Warm Leatherette" is not by Kraftwerk or Throbbing Gristle. It's by The Normal, AKA Daniel Miller.
• “Warp to World 6-9" (the Super Mario rap) is not by Mike Jones or MC Chris. It's by Benefit.
• "The Warrior" is not by Heart, Pat Benatar, or Joan Jett. It's by Scandal (not to be confused with the Japanese SCANDAL).
  • Speaking of Scandal, the singer is Patti Smyth, NOT Patti Smith.
• The country song "Wanted" is not by Rascal Flatts or Lonestar, but by Hunter Hayes.
• For whatever reason, many websites falsely attribute the ED song to Dragon Half, "Watashi no Tamagoyaki", to Mikuni Shimokawa, even though she wasn't even active at the time the series was made. It's actually sung by Mink's seiyuu, Kotono Mitsuishi.
• "Water Music" is not by Mozart or Bach, but by George Frederic Handel. Same for the Sarabande from his Keyboard Suite in D Minor. (Bach's Sarabande, from the Cello Suites, is completely different)
• "We Are Family" is not by Cher, The Supremes, The Pointer Sisters, or The Emotions, but by Sister Sledge. Likewise, "He's The Greatest Dancer" is not by Supremes alumna Diana Ross, though it is similar to "Upside Down".
• A lot youtube videos mistakenly attribute the "We're In Heaven" famous remix to Cascada, when in fact it was the Spanish DJ Sammy and German DJ Yanou that recorded a dance cover of "Heaven" with vocals from Dutch singer Do back in 2000-2001, years before the creation of Cascada.
• Cannibal Corpse and GWAR never teamed up to make a song called "We Are Your Enemy"; the song was done by Dying Fetus, alone.
• "We Are Young" is not by Queen or even Tracy Chapman; it's by fun., and was made 20 years after Freddie Mercury died. Same goes for "Some Nights" (not "What Do I Stand For"), and possibly the Some Nights album as a whole.
• "We Built This City" is not by Journey, REO Speedwagon, or Air Supply. It's by Starship (yes, Jefferson Starship, though they recorded it after taking the "Jefferson" out of their title).
• "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" is not by Michael Jackson, but by Jermaine Stewart, not to be confused with Jermaine Jackson, Michael's brother.
• "We Don't Talk Anymore" is not by Justin Bieber or The Weeknd. It's by Charlie Puth.
• "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City" are not by AC/DC. "Sweet Child o' Mine" is not by Aerosmith. "November Rain" is not by Jon Bon Jovi. Hasn't anyone heard of Guns N' Roses???
• "We'll Figure It Out," the theme song to Lizzie McGuire is not sung by Hilary Duff, nor is it sung by Hallie Todd, who plays Lizzie's mother. It is sung by session singer Angie Jaree.
  • Another Lizzie song misattributed to Duff is the version of "The Tide is High" that Lizzie lip-syncs to in her bedroom at the start of The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which is actually performed by Atomic Kitten.
• Neither "We're Not Gonna Take It" nor "I Wanna Rock" were by Mötley Crüe, nor were either by Quiet Riot. They're both by Twisted Sister.
• "We Live" is not by Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, *NSYNC, or PM Dawn. It's by Swedish solo boy band soundalike Bosson.
• The Softer and Slower Cover of Irene Cara's "Flashdance...What A Feeling" is not by Alessia Cara or Ariana Grande. That was Franco-Portuguese idol singer Caroline Costa.
• "What a Wonderful World" is not by Ray Charles. It's by Louis Armstrong.
  • The Ramones did not cover "What a Wonderful World", but Joey Ramone did.
• "What Do You Remember?" is not by Jocelyn Enriquez, but by M:G, AKA Maribel Gonzalez.
• "What Do You Want From Me?" is not by Duran Duran, New Order, or Oasis, but by Monaco, the side band of New Order bassist Peter Hook.
• "What I Am" is not a song by Nena. It's by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians.
• "What I Like About You" is NOT by The Ramones, the Clash or The Kinks (neither is "Talking in Your Sleep"). It's by The Romantics.
• "What Is It(About You?)" is not by Donna Lewis or Peach (Union), but by one-song wonder Jennifer Delgado.
• The trance remix of Madonna's "What It Feels Like For a Girl" used in its video is not by Armin Van Buuren, Chicane, or Paul van Dyk, but Above And Beyond.
• "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" isn't by Duran Duran or Depeche Mode, but by Information Society.
• "What We Live For" (not "Open Road") is not by One Direction, but by American Authors.
• "What You Don't Know" is not by Cyndi Lauper, despite the heavy stylistic similarity to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". It's by Exposé, with Gioia Bruno on vocals.
• "When a Man Loves a Woman" is not by Marvin Gaye or Otis Redding, but by Percy Sledge.
• "When I'm Gone" (the 1981 soft rock song) is not by The Alan Parsons Project, Journey, or REO Speedwagon. It's by Albert Hammond, father of The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. And it's not a Rockell original.
• "When I'm Gone (Sadie)" is not by Puddle of Mudd, but by No Address.
• The song "When The Lights Go Out" wasn't done by The Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC, it was done by British boy band Five.
• "When The Rain Came Down" is not a duet between Kate Bush and Annie Lennox. It is by Happy Rhodes.
• That techno rap song with the woman singing "I wanna see you sweat" is not by C+C Music Factory. It's "What Time Is Love?" by The KLF. You might be confusing it for their song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)".
• Chvrches didn't perform "When We're Dancing", that was Swedish synthwave artist The Secret Chord, featuring Ida Trosell on vocals.
• "When Will I See You Again" is the best Diana Ross and The Supremes song Diana and the gals never sang. It's actually by The Three Degrees.
• Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie never got together to make "When Worlds Collide", nor did either of them do it alone. It's a song by Powerman 5000, whose lead singer is Rob Zombie's brother.
• "Where Do You Go?" is not by Haddaway. It's by No Mercy, covering up La Bouche.
• "Where's The Love?" is not by Alanis Morissette. It's by Hanson of "Mmmm Bop" fame, surprisingly.
• "Wherever You Will Go" is The Calling, not Creed. This was parodied on a MA Dtv sketch (see the "Higher"/"With Arms Wide Open" entry above).
• Many think "Which Backstreet Boy Is Gay?", a parody of that band's "I Want It That Way", was done by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It was actually done by the morning crew of a Portland, Oregon based radio station. Al was bothered by this misattribution to such an extent he later recorded his own legitimate parody of "I Want It That Way", "eBay", to help alleviate some of the confusion.
• Neither Guns N' Roses nor Axl Rose covered "White Christmas".
• "White Horse" is not by The Gap Band or Talking Heads. It's by Danish one-hit wonders Laid Back.
• "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" is not by Grandmaster Flash, but by Melle Mel, a former member of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. It doesn't help that originally the record label, Sugar Hill Records, perpetuated the confusion by crediting the single to Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, despite Grandmaster Flash not being present on the song at all. That said, the Duran Duran cover of the song did feature guest appearances from both Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash.
• "White Rabbit" (not the Jefferson Airplane song, the one that goes "your magic white rabbit...") is not by Bullet for My Valentine, but by Egypt Central.
• Eminem did not rap a verse on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' "White Walls". That verse was done by Schoolboy Q. Q's use of the N-Word should have been a clue to those who were confused.
• "Who Can It Be Now?" is not by The Police. It's by Men at Work.
• "Who Do You Love", from the Samuel Adams commercials, is not by Steppenwolf or The Who. It's by George Thorogood covering Bo Diddley.
• Shaggy did not sing "Who Let the Dogs Out". That's by the Baha Men.
  • Likewise, "I Like to Move It" is not by Shaggy, the Baha Men, or Reel Big Fish. It's by Reel 2 Real. And it was not created specifically for Madagascar
    • "Boom Shaka Laka", from "Dumb & Dumber", is also not sung by Shaggy. It's by Apache Indian.
  • Eiffel 65 never remixed "Who Let The Dogs Out?" either. That's the Barking Mad Mix by the Berman Brothers, In the Style of Eiffel 65.
• "Why?", the 1984 Hi-NRG song, was not by Sylvester, but Bronski Beat, with also-gay falsetto Jimmy Somerville (who later covered Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel") on vocals.
• Kesha did not provide the vocals on Flo Rida's song "Wild Ones", that would be Sia.
• "Wild Thing" is not by the Kinks, but The Troggs.
  • The cover of "Wild Thing" featured in Major League is not by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, but by X.
• "Wild Wild West" (the 1988 hit, not to be confused with the Will Smith song from the movie of the same name) is not by Talking Heads, but by the British Two-Hit Wonder group Escape Club. You may be thinking of "Wild Wild Life".
• "Wires" — it's by Athlete. Not Coldplay. it is. Honest.
• "Wish You Were Here" (not the Pink Floyd one, or the Cary August one, or the Avril Lavigne one, or the Incubus one, this one's different) is by neither Within Temptation nor Nightwish. It's actually by Blackmore's Night covering Rednex.
• "With Every Beat of My Heart" is not by Whitney Houston. It's by Taylor Dayne. Ditto the Laura Branigan song of the same name.
• Shockingly, that lounge-style cover of "Wonderwall" making the rounds isn't by Richard Cheese, but instead, the Mike Flowers Pops Orchestra. It actually came out around the same time as the original.
  • Paul Anka did another lounge-style version.
• "Work It" (the mid-late '90s tech-house track that samples the beat of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean") is not by Daft Punk, but by DJ Funk.
• "World in Fascination" is not by The Human League, although the singer sounds similar to Phil Oakey, and the title may be confused with "(Keep Feeling) Fascination". It's by a much more obscure One-Hit Wonder synthpop duo called Machine in Motion. And it's not by Depeche Mode either, you're thinking of "World in My Eyes".
• "The World In My Eyes"(the trance song, not to be confused with the aforementioned Depeche Mode song) is not by (DJ) Tiësto, but by Talla 2XLC.
• The 1990s version of "Would I Lie To You?" is not a collaboration of Boy George and Smokey Robinson, or even Aaron Neville and Smokey Robinson; it's actually by the One-Hit Wonder duo Charles & Eddie.
• Robert Miles never produced a trance version of the theme from The X-Files, that was DJ Dado, In the Style of "Children".
  • Miles never remixed Brainbug's "Nightmare" either. That's the original mix, which was eclipsed by the Sinister Strings mix.

X-Z

• Paula, the singer on The Olivia Project's cover of Olivia Newton-John's "Xanadu", is not Paula Terry, but fellow Australian Paula Lacovich.
• The trance song "Xpander" is not by Sash!, but by Sasha. Similar names, but very different subgenres. Also not to be confused with The Future Sound of London's "Expander".
• "Yes" from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack is not a Pointer Sisters song. It's by Merry Clayton.
• The '90s R&B song "Yesterday" (no relation to The Beatles) is not by Deborah Cox, but by Debelah Morgan.
• "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was not sung by Boris Karloff, but rather by Thurl Ravenscroft (of "Tony the Tiger" fame), who was not credited. Really.
• "The Cuppycake Song" of YTMND fame was not sung by Strawberry Shortcake; it was sung by Amy Castle. It also did not originate from DJ Cammy's "Celebrate the Summer". It was sampled for that song.
• “Nothing Lasts Forever” is not from Strawberry Shortcake; it is from the show PB&J Otter and is sung by the eponymous otters and their friend Munchy Beaver. It was misattributed to Strawberry Shortcake thanks to the work of a troll.
• "Young Hearts Run Free" is not by Donna Summer, but by Candi Stanton.
• "You're The Best" from The Karate Kid is not by Survivor. It's by Joe Esposito of Brooklyn Dreams. (Survivor does sing the "official" theme to the movie, "The Moment of Truth".)
• U2 did not sing the late '90s Power Pop song "You Get What You Give" (not "You've Got The Music In You). That was actually the New Radicals. (Though according to The Other Wiki, the Edge was pretty jealous that he didn't come up with it first.)
• "You Are The One", the 1992 Latin freestyle song, is not by Stevie B, but by TKA. Conversely, "I Wanna Be the One" is not by TKA, but by Stevie B. Stevie's 2006 song also titled "You Are The One" is completely different from the TKA song.
• "You Gotta Be" (not "Love Will Save the Day") isn't a Tracy Chapman song. That would be Des'ree.
• The '80s version of "You keep Me Hangin' On"^note originally recorded by The Supremes in 1967 is not by Belinda Carlisle, Blondie, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, or Tiffany. It's by Kim Wilde of "Kids in America" fame. Oh, and "Kids In America" itself isn’t by any of those artists either.
• The 2023 cover of Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" is not by Sam Smith, but by Adam Lambert.
• "You're the Inspiration" is not REO Speedwagon. It's by Chicago.
• "Your Love" (not "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonight") is not by The Police, It's by The Outfield. And the breakbeat remix is not by DJ Icey, but by DJ X.
• "You Dropped A Bomb on Me" is not by James Brown, Kool & the Gang, Prince, or Rick James. It's by The GAP Band.
• "You Say" is not by Adele. It's by Christian artist Lauren Daigle. "Trust In You" isn’t Adele either. It’s still Daigle.
• "You Sexy Thing" (not "I Believe In Miracles") is not by Barry White, Tom Jones or Rick James. It was Hot Chocolate.
• "You Should All Be Murdered" is not by The Smiths. It's by Another Sunny Day.
• Marilyn Manson did not do a cover of "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)". That was Dope. Also, the original was not by Billy Idol (it was by Dead or Alive).
  • And Eiffel 65 did not cover the song. That was Sally Can Dance.
  • Edsel Dope does sound pretty similar to Manson, though. It doesn't help that both bands perform Industrial Metal.
• "You to Me Are Everything" is not by Barry White, but 70s soul group The Real Thing.
• Lasgo do not have a song titled "You'll Never See Me Again". That's "Cry for You" by September, which has no relation to Lasgo's similarly titled "Cry 4 You". The song is also commonly misattributed to Cascada.
• Neither Everything But the Girl nor Dido sang "You're Not Alone" or "Miracle", those are by Olive. Ditto the dance cover of 10cc's "I'm Not In Love".
• "You're a Woman (I'm a Man)" by Bad Boys Blue is misattributed to Modern Talking due to its resemblance to "You're My Heart, You're My Soul". Even the titles are similar!
• "Your Loving Arms" (not "Put Your Loving Arms Around Me") is not by Amber, but by Billie Ray Martin.
• "Your Woman" (not "I Could Never be Your Woman") is not by Gorillaz. It's by One-Hit Wonder White Town, and predates the former's formation by a year.
• "Zavedi" is not a t. A. T. u. song. That would be MakSim, then known as Maxi-M. (A more understandable mistake for fans outside Russia, since MakSim, while a pop star in her own right there, never really tried to pursue an international following.)
  • t.A.T.u. is sometimes confused with TEMA, which was initially a "bootleg"/rip-off of the duo. It doesn't help that TEMA were involved with Ivan Shapovalov, either. Oh, and there's also that Rammstein song, "Moskau", which people are adamant is sung by Yulia Volkova — it's not. The singer is Viktoria Fersh.
  • t.A.T.u also never recorded the Russian folk song "Kalinka" but obscure German girl group Yamboo did.
• That Legend Of Zelda-inspired song (which, by the way, is simply titled "Zelda", not "Link! He Come to Town!" or even "The Legend of Zelda Theme" or "The Zelda Song") was never performed by System of a Down, or even sang by Serj Tankian at all. (It is not by Mr. Bungle either.) That version is by Joe Pleiman and Jesse Spence, who were members of a musical duo named The Rabbit Joint, on their self-titled album. The duo later metamorphosed into Bluegrazer, whereupon they released a song called "The Rabbit Joint." Some amount of confusion is understandable, as Pleiman's voice partially resembles Tankian's.
  • On the Loveline radio show, SOAD's Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan confirmed they never performed the song.
• "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" was never sung by Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio or by his actor Cliff Edwards at all. It actually comes from the movie Song of the South and was sung by James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus in that movie.
• "Zwischen uns" is not by Rammstein, but by fellow Neue Deutsche Härte band Eisbrecher.

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