# This song sounds almost exactly like THAT song! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2009, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809 "2009-10-06T12:36:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BomTek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bomtek/32/21364_2.png) [@BomTek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BomTek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/81 "2009-10-26T09:03:47Z")
A couple I got from my years as a Kiss fanatic: Buckcherry’s song “Lit Up” has basically the same guitar part as Kiss’ “Shock Me” from \*Love Gun \*or \*Alive II \*(but please, for the love of Og, stay away from any version you might hear with Tommy Thayer singing lead). Kiss borrowed a little from Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” for “She.” Eric Singer (current and former Kiss drummer) and Bruce Kulick (former Kiss guitarist, now with Grand Funk) were briefly part of a project called ESP (Eric Singer Project) and made an album with a cover of “Foxy Lady” in which they made the similarities obvious enough for almost anyone to catch. ETA: Yeah, can’t access YouTube from here, or I’d post links… not that I think most people are that interested in Kiss. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/82 "2009-10-27T00:27:48Z")
how about “my sweet lord” and “he’s so fine” identical melodies ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/83 "2009-10-27T00:46:13Z")
The Strokes stole the opening riff for “Last Nite” from Tom Petty’s “American Girl.” ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/84 "2009-10-27T12:25:21Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > how about “my sweet lord” and “he’s so fine” > > identical melodies I was going to say He’s so Fine and My Sweet Lord as well, but thought it wasn’t mentioned because it’s too obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/85 "2009-10-27T13:17:14Z")
There was a programme on BBC Radio a while back about this very subject, called It’s the Same Old Song. Some that I remember from it: Elastica - Waking Up vs. The Stranglers - No More Heroes (I think there might even have been lawyers involved there) Elastica again, more blatantly - Connection vs. Wire - Three Girl Rhumba ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2hstt2rQjY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2hstt2rQjY)) Oasis - Shakermaker ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3OO2sWelNs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3OO2sWelNs)) vs. I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing k.d. lang - Constant Craving vs. Rolling Stones - Anybody Seen My Baby Some of these are admittedly more in the “spookily similar riff” vein rather than being basically the same song. There were more examples in that programme such as the aforementioned Killing Joke/Nirvana one. I’ll see if I can dig out the recording. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/86 "2009-10-27T13:18:52Z")
“Jeepster” by T. Rex owes a lot to Howlin’ Wolf’s “You’ll Be Mine”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/87 "2009-10-27T13:54:59Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > A friend of mine once pointed out that the same five note sequence – BDBGA – not only forms the basis of _Sing, Sweet Nightingale_ from Disney’s _Cinderella_ AND figures prominently in the _Pie Jesu_ from Lloyd Webber’s _Requiem_, but is also the melody for Monty Python’s song about traffic lights. > > I still haven’t forgiven him for that. And Dvorak’s _New World Symphony_, no? ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/88 "2009-10-27T14:40:10Z")
Opening parts of DeGarmo & Key’s “Rebel for God” and Whitecross’ “When the Walls Tumble” are pretty identical, but I wouldn’t expect you to know either song unless you’re into 80s Christian metal … ---
**Author:** ![born\_too\_late](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba9def/32.png) [@born\_too\_late](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/born_too_late)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/89 "2009-10-27T14:53:54Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > The choruses to Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” are remarkably similar. There’s a live version of Orbital’s [‘Halcyon and on and on’](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVW5uQ17FH0) that mixes both these songs in near the end (around 5:20). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/90 "2009-10-27T15:33:56Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > I was going to say He’s so Fine and My Sweet Lord as well, but thought it wasn’t mentioned because it’s too obvious. Obvious to the point that George Harrison was sued for copyright infringement and lost. I believe he ultimately conceded the similarity but said that it was not an intentional imitation. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809/91 "2009-10-27T23:03:41Z")
The opening of the Indigo Girls’ “Tried to Be True” always reminded me of The Who’s “Don’t Let Go the Coat”. I used to listen to a radio station that had both songs on its playlist, and it often took me a few seconds to figure out which one I was hearing. Part of Leonard Cohen’s oft-covered “Hallelujah” sounds like Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” to me. Wikipedia tells me that the melody of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” was borrowed from the French classical song “[Plaisir d’Amour](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaisir_d%27amour)”, so it actually predates Elvis by more than a century. A couple of years ago there was some new song that I always thought was a cover of a Rolling Stones song until the lyrics kicked in, but I’m afraid I can’t remember what the two songs were. :o > [@Ximenean](#): > > k.d. lang - Constant Craving > vs. > Rolling Stones - Anybody Seen My Baby I learned from _Pop-Up Video_ that the Stones noticed the resemblance before the song was released, and hastily added lang to the songwriting credits (thus granting her a slice of the royalties) to head off any potential lawsuit. lang reportedly said she was very flattered to have been considered an influence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-song-sounds-almost-exactly-like-that-song/512809.md?page=4)