Justin Bieber vs. September

Justin Bieber vs September

It is apparent that Justin Bieber isn’t the only one who needs somebody to love.  Queen needed somebody to love in 1976 and of course Jefferson Airplane in 1967. “Somebody to Love  (featuring Usher)” (2010) was actually originally recorded by Usher himself in 2010 (or 2009?). Here is some info from wikipedia about Biebs:

[“Somebody to Love”] served as the second single from [Justin Bieber’s] album, My World 2.0. It was written by Heather Bright and The Stereotypes, and produced by the latter. The song was originally recorded as a demo by Bieber’s mentor, R&B singer, Usher, for his sixth studio album, Raymond v. Raymond (2010). After things went stale with Usher’s label, The Stereotypes were encouraged to give the song to Bieber, who recorded it, with Usher performing background vocals.  – from wikipedia

Note: “Cry for You” samples the keyboard line from Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” (1984). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuz94ZIPfJk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltown_Boy

Now that we got that out of the way. Check out September‘s 2006 track “Cry for You” with “Somebody to Love”. Enjoy!



Submitted by Adam

The Jackson 5 vs. Gilbert Bécaud

I was listening to some Elvis Presley tunes when “Let It Be Me” came on. I thought the verse really sounded like “I’ll Be There” so I dug into my best friends Wikipedia and YouTube.

“Let It Be Me” is a popular song originally published in 1955 as “Je t’appartiens”. The score was written and first recorded by Gilbert Bécaud. The lyrics were penned in French by Pierre Delanoë. The English language version used lyrics by Mann Curtis and was performed in 1957 by Jill Corey in the television series Climax!. Corey’s version, with orchestration by Jimmy Carroll, was released as a single and was moderately successful. The most popular version of “Let It Be Me” was released in 1960 by The Everly Brothers. It reached 7th position on the Billboard Hot 100. The harmony arrangement of this version was often emulated in subsequent remakes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be_Me_(song)

I’ve included Mariah Carey‘s 1992 version of  “I’ll Be There” in addition to The Jackson 5. Enjoy!

The Jackson 5 - "I'll Be There" (1970)

Mariah Carey - "I'll Be There" (1992)


Gilbert Bécaud - "Je t'appartiens (I Belong to You)" (1955)

Jill Corey - "Let It Be Me" (1957)

The Everly Brothers - "Let It Be Me" (1960)

Elvis Presley - "Let It Be Me" (1970)

 

UPDATE #2: Huey Lewis & The News vs. Ray Parker Jr. vs. The Bar-Kays vs. Queen

Huey Lewis & The News vs. Ray Parker Jr. vs. Bar-Kays vs. Queen Ghotbusters Theme

UPDATE 6/21/2017:

Hans pointed out in the comments that “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)”  from 1979 by the Jackson 5 needs to be added. He’s right!

The Jackson 5 - Shake Your Body To The Ground

Who you gonna call?! Freddie Mercury?

Here’s an update to  Huey Lewis & The News vs. Ray Parker Jr which was one of the first posts on this site.

[Ahh, Photoshop… the possibilities are endless.
L to R: Huey Lewis, Freddie Mercury, Ben Cauley of the Bar-Kays, Ray Parker, Jr. 
]

Travis pointed out how much Queen‘s 1989 “The Invisible Man” sounds like the Ghostbusters theme as well   (Make sure you check out the video below -it’s totally 80s).  So listen to all four of these tracks. I’ve also updated  “I Want a New Drug” and “Ghostbusters”  to include the verses and intros.

The Bar-Kays - "Soul Finger" (1967)

Huey Lewis & The News - "I Want a New Drug (verse)" (1984)
Huey Lewis & The News - "I Want a New Drug (intro)" (1984)


Ray Parker Jr. - "Ghostbusters Theme (intro)" (1984)

Ray Parker Jr. - "Ghostbusters Theme (verse)" (1984)


Queen - "The Invisible Man" (1989)

 

Here’s some reading from Wikipedia:

I found this on wikipedia regarding the Huey Lewis & The News track “I Want a New Drug” (1984) and Ray Parker Jr.’s theme to the movie Ghostbusters (also 1984). Ever since this song, if  anyone asks me “who I’m gonna call” you know what I’m gonna say.

In 1984, Ray Parker Jr. was signed by the producers of Ghostbusters to develop the film’s title song. Later that year, Huey Lewis and the News sued Parker, citing the similarities between the “Ghostbusters” song and their earlier hit “I Want a New Drug”. According to Huey Lewis and the News, this was especially damaging to them since “Ghostbusters” was so popular, rising to number one on the charts for three weeks. Parker and Lewis later settled out of court. Huey Lewis has stated that his experiences with the producers of Ghostbusters may have been indirectly responsible for getting his band involved with the movie Back to the Future.

In the 2001 Behind the Music special, Huey Lewis stated: “The offensive part was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped this song off, it was kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something—they wanted our wave, and they wanted to buy it. … [I]t’s not for sale. … In the end, I suppose they were right. I suppose it was for sale, because, basically, they bought it.” As a result of this statement, Parker Jr. filed a suit against Lewis, claiming he violated the settlement’s confidentiality agreement and seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees.

An issue of Premiere Magazine would later feature an anniversary article about the movie Ghostbusters. In that article, the filmmakers admit to using the song “I Want A New Drug” as temporary background music in many scenes. They then said that they had made an offer to Huey Lewis and the News to write the main theme, but they declined. The filmmakers then provided Ray Parker Jr film footage—with the Huey Lewis song in the background—to aid Parker in writing the theme song.  – Huey Lewis & The News on Wikipedia

 

The most important question here is will there be a Ghostbusters 3? And if so will Huey Lewis and Ray Parker Jr. co-write a new theme song.
“I Want a New Ghost”
“I Ain’t Afraid of No Drugs”

And now the video for Queen “The Invisible Man”

Queen - The Invisible Man (Official Video Remastered)

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