It’s funny; there’s got to be thousands and thousands of songs that share the same title, but OTTOMH I could only come up with two matches immediately, without trying to scan through the world history of pop music from memory:
“Crazy” by Patsy Cline and “Crazy” by Pylon (and covered by REM),
and
“She’s So High” – Blur and Tal Bachman.
Pathetic, really. :o I’m confident that if I took the time to really concentrate on this for, say, an hour, I’d be able to come up with a few more, but that’s really a different kind of challenge… and arguably a total waste of time.*
So, how many can you come up with without any cheating? No fair riffling through your iPod or music collection, much less using an online music database or search engine (except to confirm or rule out a guess). If you want to really think about it for awhile, that’s great, but please indicate how many of those matches you were able to come up with immediately, as opposed to using your mental brute-force algorithms.
Well, okay, not a total waste of time, especially if for music mavens and music-trivia hounds, and you know who you are.
Batteries Not Included - Sparks and Jethro Tull
Give Peace a Chance - Leon Russell and Plastic Ono Band
I Put a Spell on You - Leon Russell and Screaming Jay Hawkins
[ul][li]Another Day, the cute little ditty by Paul McCartney and Wings (“It’s just another day, do do do do do…”)[/li][li]Another Day, the song from the scene in Rent where Roger angstily tries to kick Mimi out of his apartment, not realizing they both have AIDS[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]Anything Goes, the Guns & Roses song with possibly the dirtiest lyrics of any mp3 I own[/li][li]Anything Goes, the Cole Porter theme from the musical of the same name[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]Bad Girl, a heavy, dirty rock & roll sing-a-long from the New York Dolls[/li][li]Bad Girl by Rihanna and Chris Brown, where Rihanna teasingly sings about what a bad little girl she is for spending all her man’s money on clothes[/li][li]Bad Girls, a funky disco number by Donna Summer about…prostitution[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]Blood, the goth-vaudeville final track on My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parade[/li][li]Blood, a lengthy indie rock song by Editors[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]The Box by Holly McNarland, a hard-edged rock song with very strange lyrics but gorgeous vocals[/li][li]The Box by Johnny Flynn, a folk rock song[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]Five Years by David Bowie, the lush narrative opening to Ziggy Stardust[/li][li]Five Years by The Enemy, your average disillusioned 21st century British pop song[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]Girl by Goose, purveyors of loud, hard electro/rock[/li][li]Girl by the Beatles, a little ditty about a manipulative lover[/li][li]Girl by T Rex, a soft, sweet folk song[/ul][/li]
and it goes on… I always think it’s funny how very different these songs are.
Rain - Madonna and Patty Griffith
Hold Me - Weezer, Duran Duran, Fleetwood Mac, Colin Hay, Matt Nathanson, Savage Garden…
All American Girl - Melissa Etheridge, Train
Missing - Everything but the Girl, Beck, Bruce Springsteen, Arcadia
Move Away - The Killers, Culture Club
“Gloria” Them featuring Van Morrison/Enchantment/U2/Laura Brannigan
“I Want You” Bob Dylan/Marvin Gaye*
“I Need You” The Beatles/The Kinks/America
“I Love You” The Volumes/The Zombies/The Climax Blues Band
“Best of My Love” The Eagles/The Emotions
“Rescue Me” Fontella Bass/Madonna
“Stand” Sly and the Family Stone/REM
“Jump” Van Halem/Kriss Kross
“Venus” Frankie Avalon/Shocking Blue (also Bananarama)
“God Save the Queen” British national anthem/The Sex Pistols
“That’s Entertainment” Judy Garland/The Jam
“Cry” Johnny Ray/Godley and Creme
“Crying” Roy Orbison/Aerosmith
“Rag Doll” The Four Seasons/Aerosmith
“Dance, Dance, Dance” The Beach Boys/The Steve Miller Band**
“Call Me” Aretha Franklin/Blondie***
“Feel Like Makin’ Love” Roberta Flack/Bad Company
“Good Times” Sam Cooke/TV series theme song/Chic
“Because” The Dave Clark Five/The Beatles
“Girls” Dwight Twilley/The Beastie Boys
“I’m On Fire” Dwight Twilley/Bruce Springsteen
“Wild, Wild West” Kool Moe Dee/Escape Club/Will Smith
“Rock of Ages” Traditional hymn/Def Leppard
“Photograph” Ringo Starr/Def Leppard/Nickelback
“Rock and Roll” The Velvet Underground/Led Zeppelin
“Run, Run, Run” The Who/The Velvet Underground/The Gestures/The Third Rail/Jo Jo Gunne
“Stairway to Heaven” Neil Sedaka/Led Zeppelin
“Our House” Crosby Stills and Nash/Madness
*Honorable Mention: “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” The Beatles
**Honorable Mention: “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowzah, Yowzah, Yowzah)” Chic
***Honorable Mention: “Call Me (Come Back Home)” Al Green
I’ve been thinking about this one for awhile now (as pointed out earlier, this comes up once a year or so… But always glad to see it resurface.) So I’ve come up with:
“4th of July” - X and Aimee Mann
“Drive” - R.E.M. and The Cars
“The One” - Tracy Bonham and Old 97s
“Beautiful” - Carole King and The Go-Gos
“Jane” - Ben Folds Five and Barenaked Ladies
“Magic” - Ben Folds Five and Bruce Springsteen
“She” - The Monkees and Hoodoo Gurus
“Forever Young” - Rod Stewart and The Pretenders
“Do It Again” - The Kinks, The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson, and Matthew Sweet
“Lies” - The Knickerbockers and The Rolling Stones
“Bad” - Big Audio Dynamite and Michael Jackson
“Help Me” - Joni Mitchell, Concrete Blonde, and Oingo Boingo
