10 One Direction Songs that Sound Like Other Songs

10 One Direction Songs that Sound Like Other Songs

Research shows that putting a number in the title will generate 50% more clicks.* Research also shows that One Direction songs sound a lot like other songs.**

* I made that up, but it’s probably something like that
** That research is what you can listen to below


VS The Clash

The Clash vs. One Direction on ThatSongSoundsLike.com
Submitted by Alex via the facebook page

If you look really closely at the cover of The Clash‘s Combat Rock (1982) you will see the boy band One Direction in the background. This explains it all.

One Direction - "Live While We're Young" (2012)

The Clash - "Should I Stay or Should I Go" (1982)


VS Big Time Rush


One Direction - "Heart Attack" (2012)

Big Time Rush - "Song For You" (2013)


VS Avril Lavigne


One Direction - "Last First Kiss" (2012)

Avril Lavigne - "Wish You Were Here" (2011)


VS Chris Medina


One Direction - "They Don't Know About Us (Intro)" (2012)

One Direction - "They Don't Know About Us (Chorus)" (2012)

Chris Medina - "What Are Words" (2011)

After listening to these Taylor Dayne‘s 1987 hit “Tell It to My Heart” also comes to mind:

Taylor Dayne - "Tell It to My Heart" (1987)

VS Grease Soundtrack


submitted by Sam and Ilan

One Direction - "What Makes You Beautiful" (2011)

Grease - "Summer Nights" (1978)


VS The Who


One Direction - "Best Song Ever " (2013)

The Who - "Baba O'Riley (aka Teenage Wasteland) " (1971)


VS Queen


submitted by James C.

One Direction - "Rock Me" (2012)

Queen - "We Will Rock You" (1977)

A homage? Perhaps. But take note, this track is produced by our old friend Dr. Luke


VS Red (also stylized R3D)


submitted by “Secret Secret”

One Direction - "More Than This" (2012)

Red - "Never Be the Same" (2008)


VS Taio Cruz


submitted by La La La

One Direction - "Stole My Heart (chorus)" (2011)

Taio Cruz - "Dynamite (chorus)" (2010)

Might as well compare the intros too…

One Direction - "Stole My Heart (into)" (2011)

Taio Cruz - "Dynamite (intro)" (2010)

And don’t forget these from this post.

Chris Brown - "Yeah 3X" (2010)

Calvin Harris - "I'm Not Alone" (2009)

DJ Sammy - "Heaven" (2002)


VS Kelly Clarkson


submitted by La La La

The least you can do is change the name of the song.

One Direction - "Strong" (2013)

Kelly Clarkson - "Stronger" (2012)

 

SEE ALSO:

One Direction “Night Changes” Sounds Like a Lot of Songs

One Direction vs. Rick Springfield

 


Some more if you want to keep digging:
“Crazy Cakes” submitted:
One Direction “Save You Tonight” vs. Erasure “Always”

La La La also submitted:
One Direction “I Want” vs. Feist “My Moon, My Man”
One Direction – “Na Na Na” vs. High School Musical 2: ‘All for One’
One Direction – “Gotta Be You” vs. The Verve “BitterSweet Symphony”

 

 

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63 Replies to “10 One Direction Songs that Sound Like Other Songs”

  1. Mark Adams

    The intro to They Don’t Know About Us also sounds like Let Her Go by Passenger the intro to Best Song Ever sounds kind of like The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News.

    Reply
  2. crafel

    One Direction – Better Than Words vs. Jonas Brothers – Your Bigggest Fan
    One Direction – Don’t Forget Where you belong vs. Bridgit Mendler – Ready Or Not
    One Direction – Midnight Memories vs. Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
    One Direction – Little Things vs. Journey – Faithfully
    One Direction – Kiss You vs. Avril Lavigne – What The Hell

    Reply
  3. crafel

    One Direction – You and I vs. Jonas Brothers – Invisible
    One Direction – Little Black Dress vs. Rihanna – Shut Up and Drive
    One Direction – Taken vs. Demi Lovato – Skyscraper
    One Direction – Back For You vs. Blink 182 – Stay Together For The Kids
    One Direction – Story of My Life vs. Mumford and Sons – I Will Wait

    Reply
  4. crafel

    One Direction – Half A Heart vs. Jonas Brothers – Make It Right
    One Direction – Through The Dark vs. Phillip Phillips – Home

    Reply
  5. crafel

    One Direction – Change My Mind vs. Maroon 5 – Daylight
    One Direction – Loved You First vs. U2 – Where the Streets Have no Name
    One Direction – Heart Attack vs. Miley Cyrus – Party In The U.S.A.

    Reply
    1. Cream

      I know their release dates are close but Taylor and Harry Styles were together that time so If Taylor wrote it firstit could have leaked to 1D…

      Reply
    1. Mark Adams

      Sorry, I saw the title and thought it was a different song. I didn’t have a listen because it was a band I wasn’t quite as familiar with whose song came afterwards. The song I was thinking of, which sounds like those Roxette songs was Troublemaker by Olly Murs, but I would have thought it was by Maroon 5 if I didn’t know otherwise.

      Reply
  6. MY NAME

    Ok… well first of all… All lot of these are inaccurate. Second of all… If One Direction got inspiration from these artists, they put in their credits. That was specifically turned towards The Who. Best Song Ever was inspired by that song, and it was listed in the credits. Third of all… One Direction writes LYRICS and share other parts with professional song writers. SURE! They do have song writers and they wrote a lot of the new album or helped. One Direction is not FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MELODIES!!!!!! The management is the problem. When this information isn’t given, it makes the band look like knock offs. THEY’RE NOT!!!! And lastly, if you want to make One Direction look bad… You’ll have to have better than this! These were inaccurate to the MAX!!!!!! Sure, a few had a resemblance. But, you have no idea how many people disagree with these comparisons!!! Back yourself up before putting something on the internet. Plenty of people will argue and THEY WILL ALL WIN based on the comparisons above!

    Reply
    1. Keith Post author

      HI! Well, I am simply presenting the information and haven’t made any accusations. With that said, I agree with you – a lot of artists today are not 100% responsible for the writing. But they are putting themselves behind it. If you check out the Dr. Luke posts on the site you’ll see a lot of interesting comparisons of songs that he has produced for some top artists: https://www.thatsongsoundslike.com/tag/lukasz-gottwald/.

      Reply
  7. Mark Adams

    Rush by Big Audio Dynamite II seems to sample Baba O’Riley, taking the part which sounds like a ‘slot machine’.

    Reply
  8. Mark Adams

    You can add Jump by Simple Plan to the Baba O’Riley-Best Song Ever comparison and maybe even that John Mellencamp song and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.

    Reply
    1. Mark Adams

      The John Mellencamp song I was referring to was Jack and Diane, the one sampled in I Think I’m in Love with You by Jessica Simpson (1999).

      Reply
  9. Isabelle

    The first part of the chorus of Loved You First by One Direction sounds like the first part of the chorus of It’s Not A Trap, I Promise by Go Radio.

    Reply
  10. Mark Adams

    It seems One Direction may have ripped off The Clash twice, taking I Fought the Law for You’ve Got that One Thing, but who knows? I have a feeling one day we’ll have a whole song web or something, connecting all music, or mainstream music anyway.

    Reply
    1. Keith Post author

      I was thinking about making one long song out of every clip on this site. But I guess that would basically be what Girl Talk does.

      Reply
      1. Mark Adams

        And I Fought the Law is kind of a rewrite of The Clash’s Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad (1978). I was thinking of writing a song using all the most popular melodies and maybe riffs, but if that’s already been done before, it defeats the purpose, or does it?

        Reply
        1. Mark Adams

          How about this crazy comparison: Spanish Bombs by The Clash (1979) and Christmas with the Smurfs (1995).

          Reply
        2. Mark Adams

          Celebration by Madonna (Jul 2009) also sounds like I’m Not Alone by Calvin Harris (Apr 2009). These ones are tricky because they’re so close, but while it was announced in Mar ’09 Madonna had recorded the song, Calvin Harris’ had already been played on BBC Radio in Jan ’09, having been recorded in Dec 2008, according to Wikipedia.

          Reply
        3. Mark Adams

          Sorry, I didn’t realise I Fought the Law was original released by The Crickets, Buddy Holly’s backing band, in 1960, then covered by The Bobby Fuller Four in 1964, before they released another version the following year, which is still 14 years before The Clash did it.

          Reply
        4. Mark Adams

          Since I’ve mentioned a children’s song, here’s another similarity I came across: Shawn the Sheep’s theme song sounds kind of like Whatever You Want by Status Quo (1979).

          Reply
        1. Keith Post author

          Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) makes mashups and doesn’t claim to be the original writer. From what I understand he also doesn’t make money directly off these mashup recordings. I also started this site with the intention of not posting credited sampled tracks because, well, the original artist is credited.

          Reply
        2. Mark Adams

          Fair enough, I didn’t know anything about Girl Talk. It’s a lot of work for Who Sampled.com. Anyway, this is a good post as not only is there a lot of One Direction songs included which sound like other songs, but with the additions from the comments, it comes to over half of their songs. They may not all be valid and some only seem to concern intros so it seems not all 1D songs are complete rip-offs of other songs.

          I get the impression, though, that you don’t feel the need to check out the rest and neither do I. You’ve covered all the ones I’ve heard, so I won’t be left wondering where I’ve heard a song like this or that before and being as I’m not a fan, it would be pretty petty for me to seek out every 1D comparison in order to discredit them. I know some people do that and I suppose I even did to an extent, before I realised how pointless it is; surely the point is whether the music is good or not. Even with someone I do like, one rip-off is enough to tell me if they would do such a thing, only if it’s one of their best songs, it leaves me wondering if they are capable of writing good songs.

          Reply
    2. Mark Adams

      It turns out that song web I was talking about is called h1tchr.com. Well, it isn’t one, but eventually they may all join together.

      Reply
  11. Sean

    The One Direction , Chris Medina, Taylor Dayne‘s songs also sound similar to The Band Perry – If I Die Young and Passenger – Let Her Go.

    Reply
  12. Mark Adams

    In the biography of The Who on iTunes it says that their first single (when they were called The High Numbers), I’m the Face, wasn’t much more than Got Love if you Want it with mod lyrics.

    Reply
    1. Mark Adams

      You Ruin Me by The Veronicas? The Veronicas’ new album was actually released four days after One Direction’s, but the single was released a while ago, I’m not exactly sure when, but I heard it at a course I was doing in Sep.

      Reply
      1. Mark Adams

        I’ve noticed some too, but I’ll understand if you want to wash your hands of One Direction. Don’t drive yourself crazy listening to 1D. I don’t expect you to post all of my additions, but you could put one of mine with links to YouTube videos at the correct times, chart positions for the song that came afterwards and involve artists you are interested in as a higher priority.

        Reply
  13. Lila

    The chorus of their song Where do broken hearts go staring with the lyrics “now I’m searching every lonely place” definitely sounds like another song yet I cannot figure it out. Any ideas?

    Reply
    1. Keith Post author

      Hm. Well the name of this song is the same of a Whitney Houston song from 1987. The chorus of the One Direction song kind of reminds me of “Heaven is a Place on Earth” by Belinda Carlisle:

      Reply
    2. Mark Adams

      The title line reminds me of Lonely Nights (1981), This Time (1983) and Thought I’d Died and Gone to Heaven (1991), all by Bryan Adams. It also reminds me of the chorus of This’ll Be My Year by Train (2012), the verse of which is clearly based on We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel (1989), in fact, YouTube evens recommends We Didn’t Start the Fire from This’ll Be My Year.
      https://www.thatsongsoundslike.com/2012/01/30/the-most-used-melody-in-pop-music/comment-page-1/#comment-1351

      Reply
  14. Jamie

    Their new song “history” reminds me of a song from the late 80s/ early 90s but I can’t place it and it’s driving me insane…

    Reply
      1. Jamie

        That’s not the one I was thinking of.

        It’s driving me insane, but I could swear it was sung by two or three middle aged men in the early 90s, part of me thinks it was Bruce Willis or something weird.

        Reply

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