Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” and"Aura Lea"
Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy”
Clapton’s “Let it Rain”
I know, and I disagree with that lawsuit. Sony obviously felt it was better to settle than deal with it. If that’s as close as two songs need to be to constitute copyright infringement, it’s a miracle there’s any “original” songs left.
Here’s a slightly more obscure one:
Carole King’s"It’s Too Late"
and
Stephen Schwarz’s “Magic to Do” from Pippin
(The backing piano part in the verse of both is fairly similar–same key, same two chords (Am7 to D6), similar rhythm, slightly different fills between the the D6 to Am7, but a similar rhythmic and melodic idea, even down to the syncopated chord repetition after the “we’ve just stopped trying” lyric.)
Not only that, but Stanley Clarke’s “School Days” uses the same melodic outline as those two, with a slightly different rhythm.
Back when Sublime’s “What I Got” was popular, it was noted how much the general feel of the melody line and chord progression resembled “Lady Madonna,” especially the part of the verse that goes"Got to find a reason why my money’s all gone" which is pretty darned close melodically (and even somewhat thematically, lyric-wise) to Lady Madonna’s “Wonder how you manage to make ends meet” or “Did you think that money was heaven sent”?
If its not posted already…
ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky
andThe Beatles’ A Day in the Life (starting at time index 2.17)
Tito & Tarantula’s 1996 song “After Dark” bears a remarkable resemblance to Pere Ubu’s 1978 song “Over My Head”. Listen:
[ul]
[li]same key (C minor)[/li][li]same chords in the same sequence[/li][li]same rhythm[/li][li]same tempo[/li][li]melodic similarity[/li][li]lyric similarity[/li][/ul]
Compare:
AD: “In her eyes
A distant fire light
burns bright”
OMH: “In the gas her eyes are imagined
And what she sees cannot be detected”
AD: “In the dawn
I wake up to find
her gone”
OMH: “It’s pretty cute the way she tucks me in at dawn”
It would seem inescapable that Tito must have ripped off Ubu. Unless both songs are imitating an earlier model with that guitar rhythm, chords, and spooky mood.
I know they aren’t really the same, but the ending themes of Supernatural and the first two seasons of Bones remind me strongly of each other for some reason.
Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me”
Emeli Sande’s “Next to me”
I assumed that was a deliberate quoting. The first time I heard “B” on the radio a few months ago, I thought “what a clever Elton John homage.”
But my wife thought it wasn’t trying to be that, which would make it pure plagiarism.
Very similar 12/8 feel played and sung at the same tempo, but the melodies aren’t particularly similar.
This is one I’ve noticed all summer: Ed Sheeran’s “Sing” and The Rolling Stones’“Miss You”.