Songs derived from other songs.....

[guitfiddle0409]

How about some songs that were derived from/ripped off of/melodically inspired by/outrightly stolen from other songs? Maybe some of you even have a list....

[fenderhutz]

Daughry's radio hit (It's Not Over) that sounded EXACTLY like a Fuel (Hemorrhage (In My Hands)) radio hit.

Same key and everything. It's ironic Daughtry sang that song on American Idol.

Daughtry is rock from a can.

[StanFan]

Probably not what you mean, but I wrote a riff based off "Kindergarten" by Faith No More. Similar notewise, but different feel.

[guitfiddle0409]

Originally Posted by StanFan

Probably not what you mean, but I wrote a riff based off "Kindergarten" by Faith No More. Similar notewise, but different feel.

It's all interesting to me...I was driving in the car one day listening to the radio, minding my own business, when it hit me how many tunes are blatantly stolen from other tunes. It's just a source of amusement for me.

[fenderhutz]

A majority of radio hits (ESPECIALLY Rock/POP AND COUNTRY) use the DABmG, CGAmF, chord progression style. I mean ALOT. I - V - vi - IV

[driver800]

A few from memory....

My Girl / My Guy

Are You Lonesome Tonight / Yes I'm Lonesome Tonight

Southern Man / Sweet Home Alabama

Don't Stand So Close / Money For Nothing (the chorus)

Jamie's Cryin' / Wild Thing (Tone Loc)

Run Through The Jungle / The Old Man Down The Road
(the owner to publishing rights to RTTJ sued John Fogerty because it sounded too much like TOMDTR. Probably the first time an artist was sued for plagarizing himself.)


The Pretender (foo fighters) / Stairway To Heaven.
The opening guitar sounds a lot like STH. You can also sing the melody from The Gilligan's Island Theme over both songs.

[guitfiddle0409]

Originally Posted by fenderhutz

Daughry's radio hit (It's Not Over) that sounded EXACTLY like a Fuel (Hemorrhage (In My Hands)) radio hit.

Same key and everything. It's ironic Daughtry sang that song on American Idol.

Daughtry is rock from a can.

Damn! That song's flirting with a lawsuit!

[guitfiddle0409]

Originally Posted by driver800

A few from memory....

My Girl / My Guy

Are You Lonesome Tonight / Yes I'm Lonesome Tonight

Southern Man / Sweet Home Alabama

Don't Stand So Close / Money For Nothing (the chorus)

Jamie's Cryin' / Wild Thing (Tone Loc)

Run Through The Jungle / The Old Man Down The Road
(the owner to publishing rights to RTTJ sued John Fogerty because it sounded too much like TOMDTR. Probably the first time an artist was sued for plagarizing himself.)


The Pretender (foo fighters) / Stairway To Heaven.
The opening guitar sounds a lot like STH. You can also sing the melody from The Gilligan's Island Theme over both songs.

The other classic is:

He's So Fine / My Sweet Lord

[Snarf]

There's some new Linkin Park song that is a dead ripoff of With Or Without You.

[nortonrider]

Sampling = no talent required.

[gweimer]

Stuff like this has been going on forever.

I've always felt that one part of "I Want You to Want Me" borrows pretty liberally from "Cry, Baby, Cry" by The Beatles.

Cheap Trick nearly outright steals the Wurm section of "Starship Trooper" on a song called "Best Friend". The bass line is almost verbatim.

Dr. Demento did a show about this years ago, and pointed out how close "Hello, I Love You" from The Doors is to "All of the Day and All of the Night" from The Kinks.

West, Bruce and Laing (yeah, way back then...) simply rewrote lyrics for their version of The Stones' "Play With Fire" and called it "Love is Worth the Blues"

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by nortonrider

Sampling = no talent required.

Depends, after all there are some amazing Rap/Hip-Hop records that have been made entirely with samples.


System Of A Down's Attack uses the same opening riff as Bad Brain's Don't Need It

[Taylor Livingston]

I think sampling is fine and cool when it recontextualizes some piece of music. People have sampled/quoted other pieces of music in interesting ways for many years, from Charles Ives to DJ Shadow. I am a big fan of classical music and breakbeats, so when I heard Venetian Snares record Rossz Csillag Alatt Szulettet, I thought it was awesome how he reinterpreted some 20th century classics, Like Edward Elgar's cello concerto, into insanely fast breakbeat electronic music.

To say that sampling = no talent is pretty dumb, IMO. It ignores centuries of musical recontextualization, musique concrete, excellent hip hop and electronic music (not everyone's cup of tea, of course, but to say it involves no talent is just ignorant). Even on a purely literal level, if you think sampling requires no talent you have never tried to use an old MPC. Getting a sound out of a bass, for instance, requires far less expended mental effort than getting a sound out of a sampler.

What I think is irredeemably lame is capitalizing on a catchy tune because you are unable to write one. This goes for that Gym Class Heroes song that sampled Supertramp's song "Breakfast in America". I see no reason for lifting that chorus other than that these Gym Class Heroes guys wanted to have a hit song, but have absolutely no talent in writing one. "Why don't we just take a song that's already been a hit," they must have thought, "and just put our name on it."

But, are you guys ready for the most magnificently lame ripoff song of all time? In this song by Coheed and Cambria, the band manages to use 95% of the theme from Tetris and 95% of the main riff from "Kashmir" by Zeppelin, and produce something that is 0% as entertaining as either. Now even I, a staunch classic-rock-hater, will admit that Kashmir is a sweet piece of music (and it has already been sampled in about 5 other terrible, terrible songs) and the theme from Tetris is an undeniable classic. But how Coheed and Cambria managed to combine pure gold with gold, and create something so forgettable is beyond me.

[Cambass]

Just about Rogue Traders catalogue (or so it seems) - defienently ripped off Elvis Costello's 'Pump It Up'.

I saw a clip for an Amy Winehouse song that was basically 'No Mountain High Enough' (or whatever the proper title is) with her words over it. That kind of thing annoys me.

[James Hart]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

[matrok]

Now that was funny!

[Vandelay]

Originally Posted by Cambass

I saw a clip for an Amy Winehouse song that was basically 'No Mountain High Enough' (or whatever the proper title is) with her words over it. That kind of thing annoys me.

It's called "Tears Dry On Their Own", and it uses the backing music of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", but it puts a different vocal melody on top of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6LVGcIC1Tc

I think it's pretty clever, but maybe that's because I first heard it right after I had learned the bass part to the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell original. Anyway, she lists Ashford & Simpson as co-writers, so you can't exactly accuse her of stealing from them.

[theshadow2001]

A lot of led zepplins catalogue

[nortonrider]

Originally Posted by conical johnson

I think sampling is fine and cool when it recontextualizes some piece of music.

To say that sampling = no talent is pretty dumb, IMO.

Take someone elses tune and change the words, where's the skill in that?
P Diddy has made a fortune doing it, so there must be alot of people out there who think like you.
I am a true believer of making money and what that comes down to giving the people what they want. The masses like what they are familiar with.
If that's what a guy has to do to pay the bills, more power to him, I just dont think there is talent required.
Wierd Al did pretty much the same with his parodys.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Taking someone else's tunes and changing the words is not sampling, it's theft. That's not what either of us are talking about here, so educate yourself.

Conical Johnson mentioned DJ Shadow and Venetian Snares, both fantastic places to start. But please, keep your ignorance out of the forums.