Sounds Just Like

Tag Archive: riff

1. Nirvana: Come as You Are sounds like Killing Joke: Eighties

   December 4, 2012 1:04 am 1 Comment

   Geordie Walker of Killing Joke agrees:
   “We were very pissed off about that, but it’s obvious to everyone. We had two separate musicologists’ reports saying it was [similar]“

2. Smash Mouth: Then the morning comes sounds like The Animals: It’s my life

   December 1, 2012 3:45 am 10 Comments

3. Madonna: Some girls sounds like Lady Gaga: Born this way

   November 28, 2012 3:15 am 38 Comments

4. Steriogram: Walkie Talkie Man sounds like The Kinks: Picture Book

   November 25, 2012 4:55 pm 14 Comments

   This is a follow up to the post comparing Green Day’s Warning and The Kink’s Picture Book.

   Walkie Talkie Man is the song that brought Steriogram out of obscurity in New Zealand. Since its release, Walkie Talkie Man has been featured in a handful of movies, video games, and an early commercial for the iPod.

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

   August 6, 2010 12:34 am 36 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”.

6. Green Day’s “Warning” sounds like The Kinks’s “Picture Book”

   October 13, 2009 11:26 pm 58 Comments

   Picture Book (1968): A really great track from the tight concept album “The Villiage Green Preservation Society”

   Warning (2000): There is little room for doubt in this case – Green Day clearly copied every element of this song except for the lyrics.