The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” sounds like Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”
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
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”.
Chuck Berry: “Sweet Little Sixteen” (’58)
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Beach Boys: “Surfin’ USA” (’63)
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Related Sound-A-Likes:
- The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony sounds like the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time”
- Green Day’s “Warning” sounds like The Kinks’s “Picture Book”
- Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m gonna leave you” sounds like Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4″
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Amazing finds! Some of these are hard to believe.. :O
[...] blog, I will insist right now that my connection between these two songs was not prompted by the October 15th entry on SoundsJustLike.com. But here’s the link, [...]
This post has been updated with new clips (the old youtube videos had been removed) and some more complete information about the nature of the dispute between Chuck Berry & the Wilson brothers.
This one doesn’t just sound similar – it’s clearly a blantant rip-off. It even has that ‘break’ in the beat.
Not a surprise since Chuck Berry sued the Beach Boys over the similarities. He won and the song credit changed to include Chuck Berry on the Beach Boys song.
They claim it was a tribute to him after he threatened to sue! wich so wasnt true! they ripped him off and im glad he sued.
Every Chuck Berry song sounds like every other Chuck Berry Song