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Archive: Aug 2010

1. Green Day’s “Waiting” sounds like Petula Clark’s “Downtown”

   August 15, 2010 3:10 pm 31 Comments

   As one of the most frequently ousted bands recycling old melodies & riffs, I must say Green Day has good taste; Petula Clark’s “Downtown” has always been a favorite of mine. Green Day has also been found to cop a pleasant ascending guitar riff from the Kinks.

   For “Waiting” Green Day used the catchy melody of the Chorus in “Downtown” for the verse. This sound-a-like comes across more as a conscious homage than a ripoff, most clearly when Billie Joe begins the second stanza with “Downtown, lights will be shining…”

2. Update: ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ and ‘Imperial March’ sound like ‘El Capitan’ by John Phillip Sousa

   August 9, 2010 9:41 am 22 Comments

   Here’s an update to the October 14th 2009 Sound-a-like: “A Spoonful of Sugar” from Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins and the “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back. Readers commented that both songs share a similar motif from John Philip Sousa’s march “El Capitan”, written in 1896, the same year he wrote the revered “Stars and Stripes Forever”.

   So, if you haven’t already, listen to just how similar the “Imperial March” is to “A Spoonful of Sugar”.

   Then check out how both of these tunes borrow from Sousa’s “El Capitan”.

   Thanks to some well tuned ears for this update. Can anyone suggest other examples of this motif in the history of recorded music?

3. The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” sounds like Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”

   August 6, 2010 12:34 am 37 Comments

   Chuck Berry claimed that the melody to “Surfin’ USA” was his after it became a hit. According to Brian Wilson in his book Wouldn’t it be Nice: My Own Story, his brother Mury handed the copyright over to Chuck Berry without Brian’s knowledge.

   Although Brian has written defenses of the song’s originality, I find the the two clips below remarkably similar. The rhythm, structure, melody, lyrics & vocal cadence of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” is heard all over again in “Surfin’ USA”.