Here’s a funny one submitted by Doug Bresler
Have a listen to The Legend of Zelda 3‘s theme song and the Real Time With Bill Maher theme written by Christopher “Kid” Reid. Reid (now 47) might have played a lot of Zelda in his late 20s. I’m not entirely sure when the Maher theme first aired but it looks like maybe 2006.
I now dub this “CatrianiPlay: The Most Used Melody in Pop Music“. Aside from “Pachelbel’s Canon” which is commonly referenced as one of the most re-used progressions in modern music the following songs all resemble a similar melodic structure. They are not necessarily note-for-note duplicates but they sound alike.
In my first post for this soundalike we saw Reuters reporting that Joe Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay claiming that the, “song ‘Viva La Vida’ incorporated ‘substantial original portions’ of his 2004 instrumental ‘If I Could Fly.’” Then just a few months later Cat Stevens publicly stated that “Viva La Vida” has some similarities to his epic 1973 track “Foreigner Suite” stating , ” [Viva La Vida] definitely sounds like it…It has such logical chords and the melody has to be what it is…” In addition Creaky Boards, a local Brooklyn band posted a clip on YouTube of their ironically titled track “The Songs I Didn’t Write” pointing out the similarities of “Viva La Vida” (apparently released long after Creaky Boards had been performing their song live).
Just when I thought I had all of the examples of this melody in modern pop music I was thrown two more by Paradojan followed by one more from Travis (who has recently submitted a whole slew of great songs). We can now add Mireille Mathieu & Patrick Duffy‘s “Together We’re Strong” (1983), Reamonn‘s “Tonight” (2006) AND Enanitos Verdes - “Frances Limon” (2004) (2002).
And now, in chronological order:
I made a video too:
Corrections in video
“Frances Limon” was released in 2002, not 2004.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amores_lejanos
“Raemonn” is actually spelled “Reamonn
Submitted by Alexis
What?!!
I guess the guitar shop in “Wayne’s World” should add Dolly Parton to the sign… (video: Wayne’s World “No Stairway to Heaven” scene)
I’m not sure how Dolly Parton got away with using Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” in her song “We Used To“. For more Led Zeppelin on this site click here
Submitted by Andy
Have listen to up and coming Brooklyn based synth-pop artist Elizabeth Harper (aka “Class Actress“). The bass line in the “Prove Me Wrong” (2011) chorus bears a strong resemblance to the bass line of the classic 1994 Weezer epic “Only In Dreams”.
Submitted by Teru
I’m surprised this one hasn’t been submitted a million times. Here we have The Kinks 1964 single “All Day and All of the Night” with The Doors 1968 track “Hello, I Love You”. I’ve also included The Kinks’ 1981 song “Destroyer” which is borrowed from their own song.
In the liner notes to The Doors Box set, Robby Krieger has denied the allegations that the song’s musical structure was stolen from Ray Davies, where a riff similar to it is featured in the Kinks “All Day and All of the Night”. Instead, he said the song’s vibe was taken from Cream’s song “Sunshine of Your Love”.
- The Doors’ wikipedia page for “Hello, I Love You”
I’m not really sure how “Sunshine of Your Love” is related but here are the other tracks:
This is an update to Aztec Camera vs. Gwen Stefani vs. Weezer vs. Lita Ford
I heard “Cough Syrup” by Young the Giant the other day and started thinking about the descending vocal melody heard in these other tracks. Enjoy.
Submitted by Scott and @briandriliunas
According to Wikipedia The Airborne Toxic Event premiered “Sometime Around Midnight” December 2007. The single was released in 2008. LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” was released in 2007. They both follow a similar vocal pattern and the building theme with no definite verse or chorus is consistent in both. Enjoy.
Submitted by Patrick
Here’s another great Theme Song comparison. Check out the intro and chorus of Whitney Houston‘s 1990 “I’m Your Baby” and the theme song from the X-Men cartoon theme written by Ron Wasserman. I’m not entirely sure if this is the 1992 version of the theme or not.
Back in March 2011 local unsigned artist Chrissy filed a copyright infringement case against Ke$ha and the Dr. Luke camp for the similarity of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” (2009) and her track “My Slushy” (2007) . After the release of “Tik Tok” many Chrissy fans instantly pointed out the similarities of the two. Many of them have noted that Ke$ha’s overall vocal style, lyrics and image were borrowed from Chrissy.
“My Slushy” gained wide notoriety in the hit online Japanese game “Audition” back in 2006. Music site Vlaze has also had Slushy up on their site since March 31, 2007.
According to The Hollywood Reporter Gottwald has also been known to fight back with counter defamation suits when an artist cries foul. “My Slushy” is currently being put to the test in the justice system. While we await a verdict here’s a sample of verses from both tracks:
While we await the verdict have a listen to some excerpts below:
Here’s another Lukasz Gottwald (aka Dr. Luke) produced track for the site. This time for the 2007 Avril Lavigne song “Girlfriend”. The chorus similarity did not go unnoticed by seventies power pop band The Rubinoos whose 1979 single “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” shares a striking resemblance. In 2007 Rubinoos frontman Tommy Dunbar and co-writer James Gangwer filed suit in U.S. District Court in Northern California against Lavigne, Dr. Luke, RCA Records and Apple Inc.
“We are not so naive as to chalk it up to some sort of cosmic coincidence,” Dunbar said in a statement on Thursday. “The lyric, the meter, the rhythm … they’re identical.”
More about the lawsuit here: Avril Lavigne Responds To Lawsuit, Says She’s Been ‘Falsely Accused’ on MTV.com
According to PopCrunch.com the case was settled out of court in 2008.
Avril Lavigne has reached a settlement in a lawsuit that accused her of plagiarizing her hit single, “Girlfriend.”
Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” Lawsuit Settlement; Rubinoos Avril Lavigne at PopCrunch.com
I’d also like to note that The Ramones have a song called “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” released in 1976. It doesn’t sound like either of these.
While we’re here I might as well include the audio samples from the Green Day vs. Blink-182 post for the similarity in the guitar riff.
vs. Green Day vs. Blink-182
