Songs where an artist copied another artist's style almost perfectly

Glenn S. · 30 Oct 2006

"Lies" by The Knickerbockers sounds enough like The Beatles that I remember once going through all of my Beatles albums to see which one it was on.

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

To hear Kingdom Come's 1988 hit "Get It On" is to hear Led Zeppelin at their finest. I can think of no other example of blatant imitation musically. It also instantly killed their career and is why they now play supermarket openings in Germany.

Kid Bailey · 16 Jul 2006

Paul doing John on "Let Me Roll It"
John doing Paul on "One Day at a Time"

I don't know if it was intentional, but I thought Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" was Steve Winwood. Still sounds like it to me.

Ven · 13 Jul 2006

On this one, Todd & gang created a clever set of spot-on Beatles rip-offs:

When I first heard Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity," I was convinced it was Pink Floyd. I also first thought Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" was Tom Petty.

Hank · 01 Dec 2004

XTC/The Dukes of Stratosphear's "Pale & Precious" is the great lost track from The Beach Boys' SMiLE sessions. "Collideascope" is John Lennon.

The Cowsills' "What About Love" sounds like early '80s Who, or maybe solo Daltrey.

Jimbo · 19 Jul 2006

Another Lennon soundalike is "Ted, Woody and Junior" by Robyn Hitchcock, from Element of Light. Spot on.

I've been on a Boney M kick for the past couple weeks. Check out their UK hit "El Lute." It's basically a long-lost ABBA song, in the mode of "Fernando" or "Chiquitita," except the lyrics are painfully awkward--"He was sentenced to die, for something that somebody else did..." :roll:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kifhJlfu4EA[/youtube]

72stones · **Joined:** 12 Jul 2006 **Posts:** 2109

Well, I always thought that it was Ringo doing "I Can Help" before I would later found out that it was Billy Swan.

AMW · **Joined:** 26 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 4543

This reminds me of a bit I once saw Dana Carvey do, in which he demonstrated how his impression of the Church Lady and his impression of Neil Young were, in fact, interchangeable.

Dr. Chris Evil · 26 Jul 2006

I thought Bonham's "Wait For You" was Robert Plant, though I wondered why he was reverting back to the Zeppelin style after his big breakthrough with Now And Zen.

Jimbo · 19 Jul 2006

Have a listen to "House of the King" by Focus. Tell me if it wouldn't have sounded at home on This Was or Stand Up by Jethro Tull.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jzLEZL4g6A&feature=related[/youtube]

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

Another one-The Storm's 1991 Top 30 hit "I've Got A Lot To Learn About Love" was a shameless Journey ripoff-so much so, that when I found out Steve Smith, Gregg Rollie and Ross Valory were in the band I almost puked! I'm actually shocked Journey didn't bring in Kevin Chalfant who sang for The Storm and 707 as he was a dead ringer for Steve Perry.
Also, RTZ did a fine job of ripping off Boston on "Face The Music" (ironic title) that same year-Barry Goudreau probably got sued by Tom "litigation" Scholz for that one!
Jet also do a fine AC/DC impression.

Yvonne · 30 Jan 2005

Some people back in the 70s thought that Electric Light Orchestra were the Beatles under a different name.

10CC's "Things We Do for Love" sounds like a Beatles song.

The Hollies "The Air More Than I can Breathe" made them sound like the Beatles.

James Dean · **Joined:** 05 May 2007 **Posts:** 2150

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band doing Springsteen and Whitesnake's "Slow and Easy" mimicking Led Zep to the point where, when they showed the video for it on the old "Friday Night Videos", the host for that episode, Weird Al Yankovic, ended it mid-video dragging the needle across the vinyl-style and declared it to be a rip-off. Also The Thorn's "I Can't Remember" is a deadringer for CS&N.

Hank · 01 Dec 2004

"A Public Execution" by Mouse & The Traps is the best Dylan homage I've ever heard.

"Sweet Young Thing" by the Chocolate Watchband sounds JUST like Aftermath-era Stones.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR5s8yeAWVY[/youtube]

joebase · 13 Dec 2006

the cover side of todd rundgren's "faithful" lp

rain
good vibrations
if 6 were 9
strawberry fields forever
happenings ten years time ago

excellent

peace,
joebase

Geff R. · 27 Sep 2006

America Horse With No Name - First time I heard it, I thought it was Neil Young.

David Baker · 31 Oct 2006

Shannon Noll's "Drive" sounds like a great lost Bryan Adams track from the '80s.

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

I used to think that the Spiral Starecase song "More Today Than Yesterday" was Stevie Wonder.

And that the Ides' of March's "Vehicle" was Chicago.

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

"Love is Like Oxygen" by Sweet has been attributed to ELO since its release. Up until a couple of years ago, you could type the song title into Yahoo and you'd get a huge humber of hits calling it an ELO song.

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

Alpacas Orgling by LEO.

Bleu put out this awesome ELO tribute album... I guess that's what you'd call it. It's really more than that, it's as if he tried to produce a Jeff Lynne album without actually having Jeff's input. It also features performances by Hanson, Mike Viola, Jason Scheff of Chicago, and Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish.

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

Oh, I just remembered -- I used to think "Love Is Alive" by Gary Wright was Steve Winwood.

Jimbo · 19 Jul 2006

The Call's 1983 new wave hit "The Walls Came Down" had me convinced I'd missed an early Talking Heads song somehow:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kX8lqXAONg[/youtube]

Songs where an artist copied another artist's style almost perfectly

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