Songs that have brief musical references to other tunes in there..

Metallica's very stupid "Don't Tread on Me" has a dual octave guitar rendition of "America" from West Side Story before the main riff starts.

ironic, since the movie version of that WSS song espouses ideas very much the polar opposite of what Metallica is expressing in their song.

"Stay Up Late" by Talking Heads calls back to "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by the Temptations.

"I know you wanna leave me"

Michael Stipe's Elvis impersonation on "Hey baby" after the "Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?" line in R.E.M.'s "Man On The Moon."

Pink Floyd's "Fearless" ends with the football crowd singing "You'll Never Walk Alone"

Spacemen 3's "Revolution" basically *is* the MC5's "Black To Comm"

The main riff from The Hives' "Go Right Ahead" ended up sounding so much like ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" that the band preemptively contacted Jeff Lynne for permission and gave him a songwriting credit.

Never mind "Fearless" - it's outside the scope of this thread

"The Silent Boatman" by Parliament references "The Skye Boat Song"... not briefly though.

Rich by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions quotes Telegram Sam by T Rex towards the end .

pretty sure Ballad of the Band by Felt quotes Outdoor Miner by Wire.

I been working on Concord Sonata this week and anyone who likes this kind of shit would be wise to go deep—-there are PhDs and published books written about tracking all Ives’s nods and quotes in it— Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Wagner, spirituals— he even wrote original “folk” music (and a fake Sousa March) as source material for his collageing— it’s great

Michael Stipe's Elvis impersonation on "Hey baby" after the "Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?" line in R.E.M.'s "Man On The Moon."

I glanced at a reference to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" upthread a couple of days ago and assumed it was about the quote in "Sidewinder". But someone was claiming that the horns in "How Bizarre" quote "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (idk)

Kate Bush throws out a verse of 'When You Wish Upon A Star' at the end of 'In Search Of Peter Pan'

xp that was me I was tripping

'vine street' as performed & arranged by van dyke parks on song cycle features a very obvious string quote of beethoven's 9th
Which then dissolves into a lick from "The Entertainer"! There are probably fifteen little jokes on that album

there are probably fifteen little jokes in that one song, the album is just relentless

― flappy bird, Saturday, January 13, 2018 8:10 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I been working on Concord Sonata this week and anyone who likes this kind of shit would be wise to go deep—-there are PhDs and published books written about tracking all Ives’s nods and quotes in it— Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Wagner, spirituals— he even wrote original “folk” music (and a fake Sousa March) as source material for his collageing— it’s great

― the five French fry feeling (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, August 25, 2022 11:11 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://medium.com/@bizmarkiemoon/charles-ives-in-groucho-marxs-pajamas-5ffcd3f5597f

xps Jellyfish have a "When You Wish Upon a Star" reference too, in "Joining a Fan Club" — the strings come in with a bit of the melody after a lyrical reference to Pinocchio

At the end of "Fruits and Vegetables" by Chunky, Novi and Ernie, they interpolate melodies from at least three sources:

Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf
The Merrie Melodies theme
The Toreador theme from Bizet’s Carmen

'The Purple People Eater' by Sheb Wooley (1958) has brief quotations of 'Short Shorts' by The Royal Teens and 'Tequila' by the Champs, both of the same year, as well as Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti', then a fairly recent hit.

Also, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway has a bit of 'On Broadway' by the Drifters.

...and there's a few bars of 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' in 'Joan Crawford' by Blue Oyster Cult