Songs which sound like other bands

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I've just bought the new Lemon Jelly album, & having wracked my brain realised that it hits exactly the same spot as Salako's Musicality (but with beats).

So, going off at a slight tangent which songs could you have mistaken for other artists' stuff?

Strawberry Alarm Clock's - My Desiree = Divine Comedy
Al Stewart's Year of the Cat = Pet Shop Boys
Santana's Everything's Coming Our Way = Style Council

― Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

there're many... i used to play such stuff for fun for a while in my radio shows, sometime '94-ish, but... don't quite remember by heart most of them now! :-)
...h'ever, i think one was a track from Prince's 'Diamonds & Pearls' - sounded verily like something from Abba's 'Arrival' ...and a Tiny Lights' song that could be taken for a Janis Joplin effort...

speaking of Santana, a few pieces from both Los Cubanos Postizos's (Marc Ribot) rekkids resemble ol' Carlos rather much

and if one were to seriously think (i won't!) about all kinds of metal, oh well...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

See Sloan's Smeared album. When it came out, my pals and I used play "name that rip-off" with it. Each song you can go, oh, that one's Sonic Youth, that one's Velvet Underground, that one's Husker Du, etc.
But they did turn into a better band.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

"Al Stewart's Year of the Cat = Pet Shop Boys"

Shouldn't that be the other way around? (being that, y'know, Al Stewart's heyday was the mid-70's)

Howzabout:

The Mission's "Tower of Strength" = Led Zeppelin
The Alarm's "Strength" = U2

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 16:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Shouldn't that be the other way around?

...come to think of it, I wrote them all the wrong way round.

― Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

"Last Nite"= Smoking Popes

― Carey (Carey), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 17:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Heh. Which considering I always thought it reminds me of the Smiths...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 17:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Only that Smoking Popes song "Need You Around". Which of course sounds like Morrisey.

― Carey (Carey), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 18:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Prefab Sprout - If You Don't Love Me = Pet Shop Boys

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 18:40 (twenty-three years ago)

U2's "Bullet The Blue Sky" = Pink Floyd
U2's "Last song on Joshua Tree" = Peter Gabriel
Oasis "Half Their Output" = Too many damn ripoffs to mention, Beatles,
Lennon, Doors, you name it.
Supergrass's "Moving = Pink Floyd

This kind of aping is not too uncommon, really. I don't mind
it if the redo improves upon the original (call it the "My Sweet
Lord" factor), which is only true in the Supergrass example.

― Squirlplise, Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:14 (twenty-three years ago)

(ho-ho! as i'm so bloody far away - so none of you ilm's 'head-heads can come and suffocate me with a bloody pillow - i might as well remind everybody of the bloody obvious, once again)

"OK Computer" = U2

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

"U2's 'Bullet The Blue Sky' = Pink Floyd"

Say WHAT?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Wilco - Monday = Sloan

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 19:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Hollies - Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress = CCR
Sum 41 - What We're All About = Beastie Boys
Lenny Kravitz - Almost everything = Someone else
Beck - Mixed Bizness = Latter-day B-52's

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 00:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Teenage Fanclub: "December"= Big Star
Pernice Brothers: "Our Time Has Passed"= Zombies
Guided by Voices: "Long Distance Man"= Beatles
Most of High Llamas and Wondermints= Beach Boys\

Also, on Mojave 3's 2nd album there are Drake, Dylan, and Young songs only I can't remember the song titles.

― Colin O, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 05:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Len Barry:"123"=three or four different Holland/Dozier/Holland acts
Vines:"Get Free"=Stone Temple Pilots (Nirvana my ass!)
The Ryan Adams Hat Trick:
"Answering Bell"=Van Morrison
"Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues"-The Black Crowes
"Jesus (Don't Touch My Baby"-Leonard Cohen

― Clayton Grisso, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 19:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I've formerly referred to the Guess Who as "Beatles in Furs" because they so many times emulate the Fab Four. Considering the album Wheatfield Soul we can also sight benchmaks referencing The Doors the Moody Blues, and early Genesis -- some it prophetically. See the track Friend of Mine if you need a prime example. ¥

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 20:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Audioslave's "Cochise" - doing Zep-via-Whitesnake, slowing down & diluting the riffs of "Whole Lotta Love" & "The Bridge"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 30 January 2003 13:15 (twenty-three years ago)

A great album to play the "guess who THIS sounds like ?" game is the Flippers Guitar singles album. Cornelius in his former life as an Anglophile 'proper pop star' was rather prone to taking influence that bit too far, and thus:
"Love Train" is basically "Elephant Stone" by the Roses
"Camera Camera Camera" = various Aztec Camera snips from 83-84
and the wonderfully titled
"Haircut 100", which is as close as can be to "My Ever Changing Moods" by the Style Council.

A magnificent album nonetheless !

― Darren, Thursday, 30 January 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

when i was about 15 i heard wild horses by the rolling stones on the radio and it didn't even occur to me that it might not be ocean colour scene...

― robin (robin), Thursday, 30 January 2003 22:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"name" by majestic = rocketship
which oasis song sounds like the beatles?

― keith (keithmcl), Friday, 31 January 2003 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Gene's "For The Dead" sounded so much like Morrissey the first time I heard it on the radio I actually went into my local record shop (Rockaboom in Leicester, fact fans) and asked about La Moz's newie only to be laughed at very loudly. Bought it anyway, natch.

Only that Smoking Popes song "Need You Around". Which of course sounds like Morrisey.

it does! singing half-speed over a Buzzcocks song, but Stephen Patrick once again...

― Charlie (Charlie), Friday, 31 January 2003 01:55 (twenty-three years ago)

i once saw a comedian singin beatles lyrics to oasis tunes and oasis lyrics to beatles songs. can't remember which and I have *zilch* knowledge of oasis basically, but i seem to remember it being pretty seamless. ugh, sorry, is that vague enouigh?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 31 January 2003 01:56 (twenty-three years ago)

> "U2's 'Bullet The Blue Sky' = Pink Floyd"
> Say WHAT?

Pretty funky eh? I only just noticed it myself,
when it came on the car radio late at night.
It sounds a lot like the middle jam section
of Floyd's "Echoes."

― Squirrel_Police, Friday, 31 January 2003 03:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmmmm....must go investigate that.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 31 January 2003 05:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought "Bullet the Blue Sky" sounded more like "One of These Days" myself. Plus the bassline is from the vastly superior "Stranglehold" (T Nugent)

― dave q, Friday, 31 January 2003 06:38 (twenty-three years ago)

The Gin Blossoms - Found Out About You
Heard it on the radio yesterday, which reminded me:
Sounds like Blue Oyster Cult

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Just noticed that Curt Kirkwood (of Meat Puppets and that new thing with Novoselic, Eyes Adrift???) sounds a lot like Dave Davies.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Soundtrack of Our Lives - Behind the Music

sounds like all the classic rock heavy-hitters, only with the soul completely sucked right out of them.

i though this was on the obvious tip, kinda surprised no one beat me to the punch.

― PMK (PMK), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 18:05 (twenty-three years ago)

It's not quite the question, but the Belle and Sebastian song 'Beautiful' quotes the Smiths' 'Half A Person'

Compare the first lines of each chorus: "They let Lisa go blind" vs. "Sixteen, tender and shy". I'm sure it was intentional, but it's a neat touch nonetheless.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 04:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Love = every sixties band

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 17:41 (twenty-three years ago)

S: FAITHFUL by Todd Rungren, DEFACE THE MUSIC by Utopia, "Southern California Brings Me Down" from National Lampoon's GOODBYE POP LP (merciless and dead-on accurate skewering of Neil Young circa AFTER THE GOLD RUSH), and "Magical Misery Tour" from RADIO DINNER (ditto for John and Yoko). Gutbustingly cruel.

― matt riedl (veal), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

1. Prince - "Bob George"
2. Beck - "Sweet Sunshine"

― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 11 October 2008 19:14 (seventeen years ago)

Both those sound like Ween.

― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 11 October 2008 19:15 (seventeen years ago)

I was gonna make a new thread about songs by incredibly famous people that sound like Ween

― jigglepanda.gif (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 11 October 2008 19:15 (seventeen years ago)

I think one of the new Foo Fighters songs--"Long Road to Ruin" if I'm not mistaken--is a dead ringer for The Pillows.

― Drugs A. Money, Saturday, 11 October 2008 19:31 (seventeen years ago)

five months pass...

upon hearing Strapping Young Lad's (awesome) cover of Cop Shoot Cop's Room 429 I was absolutely convinced I'd heard a classic Foetus

like, I didn't even question who it was by, it just reeked of JG Thirlwell in every single conceivable manner, right down to the Blessed-Evening-esque keys and the lyrical content

the original is slightly less Foetus-y

but the song rules

― a steak of romanticism (country matters), Thursday, 9 April 2009 23:00 (seventeen years ago)

I WANNA
TAKE YOU TO THAT
EMPTY ROOM
TONIGHT

srsly how did I not know about this song

― a steak of romanticism (country matters), Thursday, 9 April 2009 23:26 (seventeen years ago)

Louis Philippe's "Endless September" turns into an It's Immaterial song (in the vein of "Sweet Life") about a minute and a half in, when the drums, cowbell, and organ make their appearance. If it weren't for Louis' choirboy vocals, I'd be pretty well convinced that Messrs. Campbell & Whitehead were behind it.

― blue fescue (unregistered), Friday, 10 April 2009 00:23 (seventeen years ago)

UFO's "Too Hot to Handle"= Foreigner

― Bill Magill, Friday, 10 April 2009 13:02 (seventeen years ago)

Exploiting The Prophets - all of it...for life = The Doors (without organ)

― meisenfek, Friday, 10 April 2009 13:19 (seventeen years ago)

Apparat - Headup = M83 c. Before The Dawn Heals Us
Interpol - Say Hello To The Angels = The Smiths
Puddle Of Mudd - Blurry = Nirvana
Nathan Fake - Narrier = Clark c. Turning Dragon

― Chris in Belfast, Friday, 10 April 2009 14:14 (seventeen years ago)

The Sprague Brothers - betrayal = Santo & Jonny

― meisenfek, Friday, 10 April 2009 17:06 (seventeen years ago)

"Room 429" is great, but I still prefer their earlier stuff.

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 11 April 2009 21:20 (seventeen years ago)

"Great Release" by LCD SS is my favorite Eno impersonation.

― Imaginary Dead Baseball Players Live in My Cornfield (Pillbox), Saturday, 11 April 2009 22:44 (seventeen years ago)

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