Singers who sound like... other singers

Cafe Society
1

Everyone knows that Ripper Owens sounds just like Rob Halford (at least in certain ranges).

My jaw dropped tonight when I heard a Helloween song for the first time, and realized that the band’s second singer Michael Kiske sounds like he’s lip syncing to Geoff Tate from Queensryche.

Apparently I’m not the only one who thought so (skip ahead to 0’30"). You can hear the whole Helloween song that clip is from here. I have every Queensryche record up to the 2000s and I would have bet my house it was Tate singing that song. Here’s the full version of the Queensryche song, The Warning; not one of their best songs, but a good vehicle for showing off Tate’s voice.

So, any others?

2

On, “A Horse with No Name”, by America, to many people, the singer sounded like Neil Young.

3

Ronnie Lane sounds a lot like Bob Dylan.

4

1985-Bowling For Soup
Sounds like Weird Al.

5

I remember playing the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack for someone when it was pretty much brand new, and when Tim Blake Nelson sang In The Jailhouse Now, they swore it was Merle Haggard.

6

It took me years to find out the difference between the lead singer of Journey and Rod Stewart.

I probably still couldn’t tell if you had me listen to a song that I had never heard before

7

There are lots of copycat bands. For example, the singing and music on Camouflage’s “The Great Commandment” sounds very close to Depeche Mode.

8

Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel

Bonn Scott always sounded like he was imitating Steve Marriot (Humble Pie).

Some people confused Rindy Ross (Quarterflash) with Pat Benatar.

9

I know a lot of people thought (and still think) that Stuck In The Middle With You is sung by Bob Dylan. I’m not sure if that’s what Gerry was going for though, his other songs don’t sound like that.

10

And no matter how many times I’m told it’s not Neil Young, it remains that way in my memory.

11

I’ve occasionally mistaken Tom Petty for Bob Dylan, except that you can actually understand what he’s singing.

12

The first few times I heard “The Waiting” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I was convinced it was an old Byrds song (Roger McQuinn).

13

Sometimes Harry Connick Jr. sounds like a sloppy Frank Sinatra.

14

I loved the Napster days, when random kids would have to label their songs for sharing. A lot of America was labelled “Neil”; every Motown song was “Temptations” or “Supremes”; every parody song was “Weird Al”; you even had Van Morrison songs labelled “Dylan” (huh?)
“Wow, I didn’t know Dylan covered “Caravan”… THIS I’ve gotta hear…Oh.”

Now, Dire Straits maybe… Knopfler can be Dylanesque (esp after he produced and played on Bob’s Long Train Running). Take a listen to Romeo and Juliet.

15

Jamiroquai sounds like Stevie Wonder to me, but just in a coincindental way.

OTOH, Scott Stapp’s deliberate Eddie Vedder imitation is just pathetic. Mmmmyyaarrrrlllll.

16

I think Trisha Yearwood often sounds like Linda Ronstadt (and has covered some of the same songs, as well as citing Ronstadt as an influence). I like them both, so the similarity is pleasant to me.

17

First few times I heard Adele singing Rolling in the Deep, I thought: “Nice K.T. Tunstall tune. I was wondering what she’d been up to.”

18

Rumer sounds like Karen Carpenter.

19

On the first Counting Crows album, lead singer Adam Duritz sounded like Van Morrison. On the group’s second album, he mostly stopped being a Van Morrison imitator. However, he now sounded like he was channeling Jackson Browne.

20

Really? Most people would characterize Steve Perry’s voice as “clear, almost Broadway-trained”, and Rod Stewart’s as “smoky and raw”. (But if you hear a similarity, that’s cool.)

Back in the early 80s, there was a singer named Kim Carnes who had one hit, “Bettye Davis Eyes”…now she sounded like Rod Stewart, as many observed at the time.