Or: how Audioscrobbler’s similarity function should work.
This thread was partially inspired by Conway Twitty sounding like Elvis on “It’s Only Make Believe”. I was listening to Billy Joel’s “The Entertainer” recently and realized that the style reminds me of “Come Sail Away” by Styx. There has got to be plenty of other examples out there. How 'bout it, Dopers?
Blues Traveler should slap Sister Hazel’s All 4 U silly.
Bowling for Soup sounds an awful lot like Jimmy Eat World on a regular basis. I say we put them both in a battle royale.
Half of all the club DJs I’ve heard sound interchangable, and a distressingly large number of them sound like they’re trying to channel DJ Darude and not doing so well.
Gerard McMann’s Cry Little Sister is constantly misattributed to the Sisters of Mercy, for some reason.
There’s a few Rod Stewart songs from the 70s that start out with a guitar solo that sounds NOTHING like the song about to play. I never realize what it is, but it sounds cool until the Rod Stewart song kicks in and then I change the station.
I always thought that “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison sounded a lot like The Rolling Stones.
Our Lady Peace always sounds a lot like Smashing Pumpkins to me. I think it’s the voice.
One world: Queensryche.
Bad Finger and the Beatles.
While I’m certain that they would do a passable cover of “Dogs of War” which contains the phrase I mentioned, I meant to drop only one word.
Also, A Favour House Atlantic by Coheed and Cambria sounds exactly like Rush. A lot of their stuff sounds similar, but I’d bet if you put it on a classic rock station most listeners would think it’s Rush.
Same thing goes for Better Days by Citizen King: many mistook it for Beck. And a lot of their stuff sounds similar to him to (I guess ppl never really listened to the singing on that one, which sounds nothing alike.)
That Jet Song “Look What You’ve Done” , and The Beatles.
“10538 Overture” by the Electric Light Orchestra sounds a lot like a Beatles tune.
Doh! I loaded up two threads in tabs and thought I was posting to this one: link
Only took me 1/2 hour to realize this. 
Fell in Love With a Girl by the White Stripes sounds exactly like the Buzzcocks to me. When I first heard it on the radio I was stunned that Pete Shelly was working and getting airplay, assumed it was a sign of the apocalypse, sacrifaced a street persn to Ba’al, then started the ceremony of… oh, I’ve said too much. 
Spanky and Our Gang and The Mamas and Papas. In fact, Spanky covered a lot of Mamas and Papas songs. Doubly in fact, when John Phillips and Denny Doherty got back together to tour in the 80s, they brought in Spanky to handle the Mama Cass parts.
New Radicals “You Get What You Give” is spot-on Todd Rundgren
D.A.D. (Disneyland after Dark) and AC/DC share a few chords.
Todd Rundgren / Utopia’s cover of “Good Vibrations” sounds exactly like The Beach Boys, but that’s on purpose.
While we’re on them, Brian Wilson’s “Smile” album sounds exactly like The Beach Boys, too. I suppose that was on purpose as well. The band manages to sound like The Wrecking Crew, and the singers manage to sound like The Beach Boys, except they don’t have anybody quite as nasal as Mike Love. This is maybe a good thing.
I don’t know where you’ll find two more excellent examples of slavish devotion to the meticulous recreation of the original sound by anybody.
I remember back in the mid-nineties, Sugar Ray did a song called “Rivers” that was an intentional emulation of Weezer down to even the most minute details. It was on a movie soundtrack, and everyone thought it was Weezer. It was definitely an intentional homage, as it was named after Weezer’s frontman, Rivers Cuomo.
It also sounds very similar to “Private Universe” by Crowded House.
Specifically this bit:
Ooh look what you’ve done
you’ve made a…(fool of everyone)
Feels like nothing matters…(in our private universe)
Crowded House’ song “You’re Not the Girl You Think You Are” also sounds like the Beatles.