I could be totally wrong here, but everytime I hear the Eagles song You Are Not Alone from their latest album I'm reminded of another older song from the 70s or 80s that I remember hearing from the radio growing up. I can't quite remember the name of the song or even who sings it but it goes something like this:

"One more try
I didn't know how much I loved you
One more try
Just give me one more try"

Again I'm not entirely sure how the song goes but I believe it's something like that. All I know is that the second I heard that new song by the Eagles another songs lyrics and melody popped into my head instead and now I can't even hear that particular song anymore without thinking of the other one instead. I know it might seem silly but it's been driving me nuts knowing that I've heard the melody of that song before in an older song but not knowing what that older song is exactly.

Also I swear that towards the end of the Over the Rhine song Entertaining Thoughts there's the guitar solo of the Eagles Take It Easy, so now whenever I hear that particular part of that song I'm thinking there goes Take It Easy again.

I realize I could be totally off here in both instances but that's what I think of when I'm hearing those songs. Can anyone else on here think of other instances where the melody of one song reminds you of the melody of another one? And I don't mean rap artists sampling other artists music and putting it into their own. I mean genuine melodies that seem ripped off from other artists work.

XTC's "Standing In For Joe" is lifted straight from Steely Dan's "Barrytown."

"Surfin' USA" (Beach Boys) is a rewrite of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen"

The Coral's "Dreaming of You" sounds a LOT like the Supremes' "My World is Empty WIthout You"

The Jam's "Start!" comes from The Beatles' "Taxman"

Paul Weller's "The Changing Man" comes from ELO's "10538 Overture"

The Style Council's "Speak Like A Child" is frighteningly similar to Brinsley Schwarz's "Surrender To The Rhythm"

Steve Miller's "The Stake" is the same song as Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way."

Springsteen's recent hit "Radio Nowhere" cops the riff from Tommy Tutone's "Jenny/867-5309."

The melody of Radiohead's "Creep" sounds alot like the Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe."

Two notorious examples from the 80's:

Corey Hart's "Sunglasses At Night" rips off "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics.

The "Ghostbusters" theme by Ray Parker Jr. ripped off "I Want A New Drug" by Huey Lewis & The News to tthe extent that the matter ended up in court.

Try playing ELO's "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" and Deep Purple's "Woman From Tokyo" back-to-back--it's the same riff.

I'd throw Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" in with the above two -- and there's another one in that group that is driving me nuts because I can't think of it.

I think the similarity between Hall and Oates' "Maneater" and Stevie Wonder's "Part Time Lover" led to a lawsuit as well.

Grateful Dead's Ripple and Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat sound very similar to me. Not that one stole from the other, just a coincidence.

My sweet Lord, how do you people come up with these?

Probably 3 or 4 songs by Jellyfish borrow parts from 10cc's The Things We Do For Love.

Could it be Joe Walsh's "Meadows"?
It's almost the exact chord sequence.

Nice one, Pip.

Others:

"More Than a Feeling" borrows freely from "Louie Louie", but then, a lot of songs do.
The birds "Tiffany Queen" combines the "Jumpin' Jack Flash " riff with a touch of "Johnny B Goode".

The riff that propels the aforementioned "Rocky Mountain Way" is the "Hoochie Coochie Man" riff, which has also been used countless other times. I don't know for sure if Willie Dixon originated it, but I'm not aware of any song that previously used it.

"the gypsy woman told my mamma" duh DUH duh duh

This song borrows heavily from something. I'm damned if I can figure it out though...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC9xnT8eu4Y[/youtube]

I always felt that the chorus of Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" borrowed a lot from the signature riff in the James Gang's "Funk #49."

Of course, we can't forget Paul Simon's "American Tune," the spiritual "Going Home" and the Toys' "A Lover's Concerto" (all of which borrow their melodies from classical music.)

3 Oasis tunes:

"Step Out" is based on Stevie Wonder's "Uptight"

"Shakermaker" is taken from "I'd like to teach the world to sing"

"Fade Away" is swiped from Wham!'s "Freedom."

The La's "Feeling" is essentially "Last Train To Clarksville", which in turn is essentially "Paperback Writer."

I am totally not following Twitchy on those comparisons. Don't hear the similarities, except that Feelin' and LTTCV are both kinda jangly. PW isn't even that.

But whenever I hear "The Only One" by Melissa Etheridge, right before the pre-chorus, I want to sing the "Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat" bit from "Rocky Mountain Way."

Now, "Apples Peaches Bananas and Pears" is a rewrite of "Clarksville," but both were by Boyce & Hart.

Avril Lavigne was sued by the Rubinoos for the similarities between her song "Girlfriend" and their "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," which they, in turn stole from The Ramones (the title lyric), The Stones (the Hey Hey You You bit from "Get Off My Cloud") and Sonny Curtis (the melody at the end of the chorus is taken from "Love Is All Around," the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme).

The video link no longer works -- do you have another, or can you tell us what song it was?