Try Pianote FREE for 30-Days: and think about signing up for their YouTube channel:.
Follow me over on Twitch for regular livestreams:.
I've made various videos in the past about songs that apparently swindle, or at least borrow from, other hit songs that came prior to them. But there are still plenty more examples of these suspicious likenesses in pop tunes, so today we'll be looking at nine more examples of songs that are based on other tunes.
The outro music to this video is my track "The Longest March" which you can hear completely on Spotify:.
SOURCES:.
Dead Can Dance interview from Boston World (1996 ):.
This video was modified by David Hartley. Take a look at his YouTube channel here:.
And, an additional special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel's Patreon saints!.
SUPPORT ME ON PATREON:.
0:00 Introduction.
0:34 The Offspring.
1:48 Sanctuary.
2:55 Frank Ocean.
3:25 Dead Can Dance.
4:35 Pianote.
5:32 Radiohead.
6:40 Bad Religion.
7:28 Twitch & Patreon.
Click Here To Learn Piano or Keyboard
Try Pianote FREE for 30-Days: https://www.pianote.com/affiliate/davidbennett 🎹 and consider subscribing to their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PianoteOfficial 🎼
Saturday… in the park… I think it was the 4th of July – Chicago
When I call… you up… your line’s engaged – The Beatles
thought it’d be 6 oasis songs
Oasis sound nothing like the beatles. They sound more like the rolling stones or slade or t-rex.
@The Disc Rays “Nothing like The Beatles”
​@Lord Ithkosbeatles use a wide range of chords, styles and tempos in their songs, oasis do not. They are more like the rolling stones in that regard.
they really don’t sound like The Beatles as much as people say they do. they sound more like bands such as T. Rex, Slade, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and XTC, who were themselves influenced by The Beatles (I would say even more so than Oasis).
@The Disc Raysthey were heavily inspired by them tho
The end of Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” always felt to me like a lift from various Beatle’s tunes, so it made sense when I learned it was recorded at at George Martin’s AIR Studios.
Also their song “Believe Me” has a suspiciously similar verse to that of “Oh! Darling”.
It reminds me of the conclusion to the Abbey Road Medley
they were also at the beatles apple label and Paul wrote a song for them
And published under Apple Corps
And George Harrison partially produced the album
The beat in Let Forever Be by Chemical Brothers, a straight rip from Tomorrow Never Knows. Incidentally, it also features a certain singer…
Different drum beat; not a rip. Bassline does the hopskip, though.
Yeah, Setting Sun is very similar too. Shows a lack of imagination.
i would nominate Sowing the Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears which proudly captures that Magical Mystery Tour era Beatles sound.
The verse is very I am the Walrus, the chorus has echoes of Hello, Goodbye, and there’s even a cornet solo as a deliberate nod to Penny Lane.
What’s more shocking is that you can tell the difference of Trumpet and cornet by ear… and I play cornet and I can’t!!
I think Skylarking by XTC is one of the most Beatlesque albums of the 80s.
Midnight in a perfect world by dj shadow has the exact same chord progression as sowing the seeds of love. I believe the DJ shadow tune is a sample from an older track. I reckon T4F stole it from this track
The drums intro is tottaly I Am The Walrus.
I always say sowing the seeds of love is the best Beatles song not written by The Beatles.
Start! by the Jam always comes to mind when talking about ‘Beatles-influenced’ tracks – the bass and guitar riffs are pretty much exact copies of those found in Taxman
Think the Jam had to pay royalties for that, if I remember correctly.
@Lofi Guy I think Harrison was so bruised by his own copyright case that he said he didn’t hear any similarities to Start, or something similar. As he thought the whole thing was toxic.
Paul Weller even says so.. On one of their live albums as they start the song he introduces it as “Beatles…”
I’m surprised you didn’t mention “What I Got” by Sublime (same melody as “Lady Madonna”). Also, I’m not that familiar with ELO’s catalog, but they have some really obvious ones. For example, “Telephone Line” has a chorus extremely similar to “Hello Goodbye”, and it also seems to contain similarities to a few other 60’s/Beatles songs I can’t always put my finger on.
I think of All the Young Dudes by Mott The Hoople (written by Bowie) everytime I hear Telephone Line
Yeah, “What I Got” was the first one I thought of. Not only does it have the same melody, but it uses the same I-IV chord progression (though “Lady Madonna” has a couple other chords at the end of the progression).
Agreed, that’s the strongest likeness to a Beatles song I know of.
Wow I never noticed that
ELO lifted from the Beatles as much as Oasis did. I can’t listen to ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ without hearing ‘You can’t Do That’ by the Beatles.
I would go for the intro piano chords of “Size of a cow” by The Wonders stuff. Exact copy of the ones used frequently during Octopuses garden on The White Album. The brief parts leading into each chorus
Fascinating how so many artists were influenced by the Beatles! And they often include little easter eggs in their songs for acute listeners to find. Nice video, David!
Copy and paste
A rock critic in my hometown said that when he was young, he yelled “Skynyrd rules!” as Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronny Van Zant was walking past him. Van Zant stopped and said, “Son, the Beatles rule. Never forget that.”
Nobody “rules” in music – not even The Beatles. Nor does Bach, or Mozart, or Beethoven …
@Max Blatter You’ve obviously never heard of Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band
And then the Free bird started playing?
And then everybody clapped
Is that true? If so it’s cool and the Beatles did rule along with Dylan and the stones
Kasabian’s “Put your life on it” shows striking similarities to John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”.
The long outro from The Killing of Georgie by Rod Stewart is basically the chorus from Don’t Let Me Down, Lennon himself acknowledged it but refrained from suing.
Yes it is and I remember hearing that the first time I played it back in 76.
Don’t forget that Paul McCartney’s “New” song from 2013 is basically the sequel to “Penny Lane”. And “Tonight” by New Kids On The Block is very Beatlesque, with a “Lady Madonna” riff in the middle.
Never realised the former
Deep Purple’s first hit, Hush, is based on a melody lifted verbatim from A Day in the Life (the transition from McCartney’s part to the last verse, but sped up).
Yes, YES, Deep Purple version is a cover though.
@jeromesnail And rhe original is still a few months post Sgt. Pepper.
A couple more: The Jam’s “Start!” clearly uses the bass line from “Taxman”, and King Crimson’s “Walking On Air” has a very strong influence from “Sun King” (the outro of their song “People”, off the same album, also has a very similar feel to the coda of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”). Jackie Mittoo’s “Wishbone” is largely “Carry That Weight” to the rhythm of “Obla-di-obla-da”.
In turn, Sun King was clearly influenced by Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross!
Morrissey’s song ‘How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel’ uses both the chord sequence of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and a snippet of the melody from ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
I always thought “Mr. Blue Sky” was really, really similar to the second part of “A day in the life”. They even copied the heavy breathing after the line “and looking up I noticed I was late”
There’s a moment in the bridge of “Mother Superior” (by Coheed & Cambria) where Claudio sings “frightened of leaving” that always evokes “I Me Mine”, where George sings the same phrase in a very similar cadence.
Look What You’ve Done by Jet is a strong nod to Sexy Sadie as well.
Also, Someone to Love by Fountains of Wayne is structured line for line and message-wise exactly like Eleanor Rigby.
Both are worth a listen!