This really comes from the current Cover Versions thread. I posted an aside there about the Pulp song A Little Soul, which is a clear musical homage to Tracks Of My Tears by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. If there was any doubt as to Pulp’s intent, the sleeve picture of A Little Soul does away with it.
It occurs to me that there must be many such examples of (intentional) homage in popular music, but I can’t really think of many (and I can’t find a previous thread on this subject.). The sax solo in 2HB by Roxy Music is supposed to be an homage to As Time Goes By from Casablanca - but for the moment that’s me done.
There must be a load more examples out there - so can we compile a list of homages?
Links to homage and homaged (?!) plus a little commentary/explanatory would be great.
Thinking about this more, I’m inclined to say that an homage doesn’t have to mention or be about the song or artist it’s an homage to; it just has to imitate or be inspired by their sound or style. So “When Smokey Sings” (that I linked to earlier) is a tribute; but if it sounds enough like Smokey’s own music, it’s also an homage.
An example of a homage that is not a tribute might be “Happy Roy” by the 77s, as an homage to Roy Orbison. As singer Mike Roe explains in introducing this live version of the song, “he sang sad songs more often than not… but this is a song we imagine Roy would sing if he was happy.”
I’m not sure where to put this, so I’ll stick it here. There’s a great youtuber called Ten Second Songs. A good chunk of his videos are already popular songs, done in the style of another musician. I can’t pick any specific clip, but here’s his channel.
And, while this is probably more for the cover songs thread. If you like Ten Second Songs, I also stumbled upon Frog Leap Studios a few months ago. His claim to fame is metal covers. I am not, by any means, a metal head. I’d struggle to even come up with more than a handful of metal bands. However, this guy is really good. Check out Toto’s Africa.
The Dead Milkmen did “Watching Scotty Die” which is a homage to “Watching Scotty Grow” by Mac Davis (made famous by Bobby Goldsboro)
I say “homage” because it’s not a parody in the same way Weird Al songs are a parody. It doesn’t sound the same but it is the Milkmen’s best attempt at a country sound.
Another instance that I’ve never figured out to be a tribute or a rip-off is Van’s “Beautiful Vision”, in which he takes the leading five notes (which never reappear in the original) of James Carr’s “A Message To Young Lovers” and makes it a new song. But I’d rather call it a homage.
I’m like others not exactly clear about the criteria of the OP, but a song that’s certainly a combination of a homage AND a tribute in sound is David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch”. It’s indicated on the original liner notes of “Hunky Dory” that this went out to V.U., and it sounds like a song from “Loaded”.
And damned, I have a song in my mind that cites the main riff of the Stones’ “Let’s Spend The Night Together” at the end of the song, but I can’t remember, and google didn’t help this time…
