13 Replies to “Blondie vs. Black Sabbath”

1. Damian December 29, 2010 at 8:34 pm

   my favorite Sabbath song!

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2. ian December 30, 2010 at 7:02 am

   They have a somewhat similar cord progression but are really two very different songs. There are only so many cord progressions you can try, and you are going to get some overlap. Songs coincidentally having a similar cord progression is not equivalent to saying that song A is based on song B. In that case Children of the Grave is based on Dr. Who, which I’m sure sounds similar to something else. A song being based on another song is something like Child In Time and Bombay Calling.

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   1. Keith Post authorDecember 30, 2010 at 4:08 pm

      Thanks for coming by ian. I agree! There is overlap and there are only so many chord progressions and rhythm combinations in the world but when I hear one that I recognize I just can’t help obsessing over where I heard it before.

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3. Gerry January 19, 2011 at 11:04 pm

   Aside from the barely similar chord progressions, I don’t think they sound much alike.

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4. Bob February 7, 2011 at 1:34 am

   Also sounds like Muse – Uprising

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5. 'Non April 28, 2011 at 10:59 am

   Has some similarities to the opening riff of Wolfmother’s Woman, as well. Or colour me crazy.

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6. FuzzySheep July 9, 2011 at 2:28 am

   Also in the Muse catagory..

   Muse – Knights of Cydonia. The solo that is. It resembles the Blondie song more, although not that much.
   Still worth mentioning though maybe.

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7. Croco September 15, 2011 at 1:08 pm

   kind of reminds me to The Ultimate Warrior theme song as well 😀

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8. Billy March 20, 2012 at 10:44 am

   I was in a record store at lunchtime and thought I was listening to hard rock version of Call Me and then realised it was Back Sabbath. Not as close as He’s So Fine / My Sweet Lord but I reckon worth a court case if there was any money stashed away for Call Me (maybe Ozzy could sue the producers of American Gigolo)

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9. Composerdave October 18, 2012 at 2:18 pm

   The only similarities are the driving pedal followed by a descending step movement on beats 3 and 4 of the second bar of the riff. Other than that they are different. The Blondie riff is 6 beats of D followed by G and F (whole step movement). This is noted as 1 then 4 and 3, (in d minor). The Sabbath (while is C# minor) is 6 beats of 1 (C#) followed by a followed by flat 6 (A) and 5 (G#). In addition, the second set of two bars in the Blondie does something different than the first 2 (It goes beats of 1, followed by F (3) and C (7) whereas the Sabbath one repeats the first two bars.

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   1. Keith Post authorOctober 18, 2012 at 2:24 pm

      Thanks for the additional theory behind these tracks! It’s interesting to hear a dissection of these clips.

      While I don’t claim that a lot of the comparisons on the site are exact musical clones there is sometimes no denying that they sound alike. Some ears are better than others so some listeners might not even be able to distinguish a half step or a rhythmic variance.

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10. Cali August 28, 2013 at 5:07 am

    The Blondie part reminds me of the song “Back to school again” from Grease 2

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    1. Keith Post authorAugust 29, 2013 at 2:46 am

       Yeah, it’s definitely got that same swing feel to it
       

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