Similar Songs/Songs that sound like other songs

It's hard to do this nowadays with all the deliberate pastiche that goes on. I'd be a fool to claim that "Locked Out Of Heaven" sounds like a Police song. It does. That's probably the point.

That and I remember one time my mother called me up to tell me that Michael Buble's "Hollywood" was a complete ripoff of another song she once heard, and then asked me to find out which one it was. (I didn't exactly succeed.)

Yes, I think that is what Bruno Mars was going for.

What I don't think, however, is that Train intended "50 Ways to Say Goodbye" to sound like the theme from The Phantom Of The Opera.

Side note: I'm so glad I found this video. I feel vindicated in having thought this from the moment I heard the song.

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It may just be me, but a lot of popular 50's rock/blues songs sound the same to me. Either it's the similar chord structure, or the similar chord progression, or similar instrumentation, but they seem to sound really "unvaried" compared to some decades.

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It's not just you. It's just how it worked. Everyone borrowed from one another and, since the genre wasn't really treated seriously (hysterics from Moral Guardians and scandals aside) until the mid-60s, people didn't really bat an eye at it.

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The Beatles must've been the ones that made the genre more varied in the first place.

I've always though that Madonna's "Holiday" sounded similar to "Never Gonna Give You Up" chord-wise (and "Together Forever").

In fact, here's a mashup:

edited 5th Dec '12 10:18:17 PM by WaxingName

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It was even in the 60s, too. Marty Robbins' "Don't Worry" and Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart" have the same chord patterns on the verses.

Come to think of it, a lot of Hank Williams songs sound similar. Most 1950s and 1960s songs were really, really, really, really simple.

Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" and "Mind Your Own Business" are pretty much the exact same song with different lyrics. I suppose it doesn't help that the Greatest Hits Album I have places them both within a few tracks of each other.

Thanks — I knew there was a specific example I'd come up with but couldn't remember it.

"Hey, Good Lookin'" and "There's a Tear in My Beer" are very similar too.

Obligatory Axis Of Awesome video.

One my mother always used to bring up: Fastball's "The Way" has verses that sound very similar to the verses from Tom Jones's "Delilah". Upon my analysis, at most 25% of the song is a ripoff.

While I love that, I don't consider similar chord progressions to be that much a cause for alarm, unless it's a sufficiently unique progression.

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Agreed. There are only about eleventy billion songs that use I-IV-I-V-I, and I can tell most of them apart (again, unless they were written by Casey Beathard or someone else who royally sucks at melody).

"Love Drunk" by Boys Like Girls. "Somebody Told Me" by The Killers. Some other song I don't know since I didn't watch that far into the video.

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Just thought of another one: Toby Keith's "Whiskey Girl" and "God Love Her" are almost identical.

Not really close enough to base a lawsuit around or anything, but kind of weird: Listen to Led Zeppelin's version of "In My Time Of Dying", starting about 44 seconds in and ending at about 1:05 *

. Then listen to "Twist Of Cain" by Danzig.

edited 8th Dec '12 11:44:56 PM by MikeK

I just realized that the guitar riff at the start of “Orlando” by Trans Am reminds me of the one that starts off “Red Lotus” by Jade Warrior. Am I way off base here? They’re not identical but they do remind me of one another.

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

I first listened to "The Game Of Love" by Santana and Michelle Branch in a Vons last weekend. I thought it sounded a lot like one of my personal favorite songs, the New Radicals' "You Get What You Give". I looked up the former song and to my non-surprise learned that it was written by the same songwriters as the latter (Gregg Alexander and Rick Nowels).

Odd example: There is apparently a track by A Perfect Circle that basically jacks the World Of Skin track "The Center Of Your Heart" wholesale. Michael Gira even consulted a lawyer about the manner, but nothing came of it because the similarities were in the execution rather than in the melody.

Strange choice of track to imitate...

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

The chorus riff to "Stained Silver" by Cave In *

has always reminded me of a heavier version of "Everything In It's Right Place" by Radiohead

edited 1st Feb '13 9:56:58 AM by MikeK

I just realized this...

One of the riffs in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" is identical to the main riff in REO Speedwagon's "Back on the Road Again".

Yeah, it's nearly identical but for the lack of chord resolution at the end.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Rage Against the Machine Wake Up and Dio Rock & Roll. Both of these have a riff that sounds strangely similar.

edited 3rd Feb '13 4:29:36 PM by Alichains

"Helpless" and "Knocking on Heaven's Door". Or maybe I'm just crazy…

No, wait, it's a popular comparison.

edited 6th Feb '13 11:50:45 AM by Gamebreaking

Deep into that darkness, peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

Eh, it's a I-IV-V chord progression (just performed as I-V-IV), so they're obviously gonna sound similar. On the other hand, the melodies do sound very similar, and I have no doubt that Dylan would've heard the song (as "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was written three years later)...

edited 6th Feb '13 11:59:29 AM by 0dd1

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Oh, I've got one!

Led Zeppelins' "Stairway to Heaven"

sounds almost exactly like

Spirits' "Taurus"