The Song is Familiar...

[D'Snowth]

This thread is based on two things, 1. Huey Lewis suing Ray Parker, Jr. because he felt Parker's theme from Ghostbusters sounded too similar to his own "I Want a New Drug" and 2. We have a misheard lyrics thread, so why not a songs that sound similar to each other thread?

Aside from the whole "I Want a New Drug"/"Ghostbusters" thing, here's a couple of examples of what sounds similar to my ears...

- "Black & White" by Three Dog Night, and "The Tide is High" by Blondie. I always get those two mixed up if I can't tell right away which song I'm currently hearing... there's something about the "The child is black, the child is white" and "the tide is high" that sounds almost identical to me.

- "Frogs in the Glen" by Kermit, and Miss U's respective letter song from the Letter People. "Frogs in the Glen" obviously has a Scotish-vibe to it: the bagpipe flourish and such, but if you listen to "I'm little Miss U with my umbrella face", while it doesn't have bagpipes, it kind of has a bit of a Scotish vibe to it as well, and to me, it reminds me of "Frogs in the Glen" whenever I hear it.

 

[Kiki]

Here's a /really/ obvious one, but the start of "Under Pressure" by Queen (w/ David Bowie) and the start of Ice Ice Baby" by... a band... haven't got a clue... sound alike.

 

[Son of Enik]

When I was a kid, I always thought that the chorus of "Minute by Minute" by The Doobie Brothers was just them scat singing (Doo-ba-doo, ba-doo, ba-doo) Until I realized that they were rapidly singing the title, funny huh?

 

[D'Snowth]

John "Cougar" Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane", and Tracey Chapman's "Fast Car". Listen to them back-to-back.

 

[Davina]

Here's a /really/ obvious one, but the start of "Under Pressure" by Queen (w/ David Bowie) and the start of Ice Ice Baby" by... a band... haven't got a clue... sound alike.

that would be by Vanilla Ice (ice baby..)

and yes, those too are identical.. i don't care that VI swears there is like a one note or half beat difference.. (no, there isn't.. not to the ear anyway....)

 

[D'Snowth]

Before I could tell the difference, sometimes I wouldn't be sure as to whether I was hearing the opening strands of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurhymics or "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

Here's a /really/ obvious one, but the start of "Under Pressure" by Queen (w/ David Bowie) and the start of Ice Ice Baby" by... a band... haven't got a clue... sound alike.

Vanilla Ice did not count his song "Ice, Ice, Baby" to be that big of a hit or even doing anything at all. But once it got big, David Bowie and the former members of Queen took notice of the song and sued, like any other person would do.

 

[Davina]

heh.. only real hit he had.. the TMNT song really doesn't count

 

[Drtooth]

Vanilla Ice did not count his song "Ice, Ice, Baby" to be that big of a hit or even doing anything at all. But once it got big, David Bowie and the former members of Queen took notice of the song and sued, like any other person would do.

That was a case of unauthorized sampling. We all know what sampling is in Rap music... but we all know that most rap/hip hop artists have the intelligence of a corn muffin to ASK permission first. Sort of like how Weird Al asks permission to do parodies of his stuff. if he gets turned down, he can always alter the melody himself... case in point, "Buckingham Blues" which was salvaged from another one he had in mind that Melloncamp wouldn't give him the rights to. The first line should be a dead give-a-way. of course, he can always find another song that fits... Beverly Hillbillies was originally a Prince song, but Prince was uptight about it, so it was altered.

Same with rap. A LOT of it borrows music from others for the rhythm line, but they have to ask permission to use that music.


That said, how about when the SAME artists wind up plagerizing themselves inadvertently? Examples?

"Somewhere that's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors and "Part of your World" from the Little Mermaid... Alan Menkin, right? Especially the ending crescendos of the songs... same tune... same timing.

And then of course Sesame Street's own Jeff Moss who liked Little Jerry's "Sad" so much he accidentally made "Four" and MTM's "I'm always gonna love you" with similar 1950's Doo Wop melodies.

 

[Gelfling Girl]

Not really so much songs as singers, but...

My mom just told me a week or two ago that she used to mix up Phil Collins and Elton John, although frankly I just don't see (hear?) it, other than the fact that they're both British (which I didn't know about either until rather recently ) and they both did songs for Disney movies. Of course, I tend to mix up Elton with another piano player who just happened to voice a Disney character. (Let's see if anyone could figure out who I'm referring to.)