Song Rip Offs

[Brad]

The two most blatant that I know about are

Coldplay's 'Talk' vs Kraftwer's 'Computer Love'

and

The Beach Boys' 'Surfin USA' vs Chuck Berry's 'Sweet Little Sixteen'.

Anyone know of any others? I don't mean ones that sound a bit like something else I mean full blown rip-offs where the rip-off artist didn't originally (or in some cases ever) credit the original artist.

EDIT: Appears Coldplay asked permission (and got it) and credited Karaftwerk. Must have been a tiny credit because I never found it anywhere on there and I was looking for it!

[JSR]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California and Tom Petty - Mary Janes Last Dance is a pretty obvious one.

I also find Soundgarden - Spoon man to be very similar to U2 - Hold me, Thrill me, kill me, kiss me.

[abigsmurf]

Famous one:

[JP]

Also, U2 must be one of the worst bands for releasing songs on different albums that are little more than "re-imaginings" of songs that have they've released previously.

[prinnysquad]

The furore surrounding Viva La Vida by Coldplay led to this article:

http://theopenend.com/2009/01/31/coldplay-vs-joe-satriani-who-owns-the-descending-melody/

Click on the song snippets, they're interesting listening.

[abigsmurf]

There are lots of songs built around very common structures (which is why so many songs go well together in mashups)

Exhibit A:

[wonderboy]

Heard this the other day. I thought it was Tom Petty, it sounds so familiar ?

Noah and the Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.

[Darwock]

Nirvana were busted for rippnig off a Killing Joke song ("eighties" I think it was called) for "Come as you are"

yeah, this one:

[Stoppy2000]

A bit of an obscure one but still....

Diamond Head with the classic metal tune 'Am I Evil?'



And Megadeth with the album filler track 'When' (about 3:20 in it starts to sound eerily similar)

[Herbalizer]

David Bowie - Rebel Rebel and Supergrass - Pumping on the Stereo

[Kieran76]

Pearl Jam's Given To Fly sounds a lot like Led Zeppelin's Going to Carlifornia.

[Ady]

I also find Soundgarden - Spoon man to be very similar to U2 - Hold me, Thrill me, kill me, kiss me.

The Soundgarden song came first. I can't hear the similarities at all either.

Anyway, 'Dog Bone' from Curve's 'Come Clean' album is a shameless rip off of PJ Harvey's 'Long Snake Moan'. The vocal melodies are very similar indeed.

Here:

[eastyy]

[marcus]

Lady Gagas new song Born This Way sounds a lot like Madonna's Express Yourself.

[Skull Commander]

Airbourne's entire catalogue sounds EXACTLY like AC/DC. I really don't know how they get away with it.