Songs that Sound Alike - Oops or Blatant?

[NORTHCOAST]

So many songs are listed in the other thread "Songs that Sound Alike".  It makes me wonder though about the severity of the similarity.  Some are just snippets of a song that are familiar sounding.  Others seem to be blantant rip offs of another artist's work.  I've heard of lawsuits in the past against George Harrison and The Ghostbusters song.  Any others that you know about?  Any songs that you think are just blatant rip offs.  Slam-dunk cases?

[Deleted]

Mariah Carey's "Emotions" and Alton & Destiny's "It Must Be Love" are blatant tributes to the Emotions's "Best Of My Love".

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's "Head To Toe" was a tribute to The Supremes's "Back In My Arms Again".

[strong4PMB!]

The intro to Pilar Montenegro's "Love Is All You Need" and TLC's "Girl Talk."

[mst3k]

geoguy said:

The intro to Pilar Montenegro's "Love Is All You Need" and TLC's "Girl Talk."

Oops or blatant?

[strong4PMB!]

mst3k said:

Oops or blatant?

Blatant

[Gorminako]

Michael Bolton ripped off the Isley Brothers' "Love Is A Wonderful Thing", not only its melody sounding quite similar, but also its lyrics. What was Bolton's song called? "Love Is A Wonderful Thing". But he called it his own until he was brought to court.

Some verses sound nearly identical to earlier songs, such as Janet Jackson's "Let's Wait Awhile" from an America song ("Today's The Day", I think, but maybe it's "Daisy Jane"). And tonight I heard a song that turned out to be by Brenda & The Tabulations, "Dry Your Eyes" (1967), that I thought from the verse was going to be the original version of Deniece Williams' "It's Gonna Take A Miracle" (1982), originally done by the Royalettes in 1965. But there are no lawsuits on these songs that I'm aware of.

By the way, does anybody have an opinion about Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" vs. the Chiffons' "He's So Shy" and Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" vs. Huey Lewis & The News' "I Want A New Drug"? In my opinion, Harrison's song was an innocent and unconscious ripoff, but a ripoff nonetheless. But I thought "Ghostbusters", though somewhat similar to IWAND as is common among songs, was sufficiently distinct that he should have prevailed, especially since most of the songs by HL&TN were very unoriginal sounding themselves.

I see no resemblance between "Head To Toe" and the brilliant "Back In My Arms Again". I did notice a strong similarity between Mariah's and the Emotions' songs, but I much preferred the Emotions' song. Hmmm...seems like Mariah gave herself away by the title of the song much as Bolton did.

Another pair of songs I found very similar in both melody and lyrics, done within a few months of each other, were Pebbles' "Girlfriend" and Paula Abdul's "Cold-hearted"

Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera keep doing similar sounding songs, especially "Miss Independent" and "Fighter", respectively.

[Deleted]

"Back In My Arms Again," The Supremes

I lost him once through friends advice
But it's not gonna happen twice
'Cause all advice ever's gotten me
Was many long and sleepless nights

"Head To Toe," Lisa Lisa + Cult Jam

Who would have thought that we would become lovers
As friends we were so, so tight

Those melodies sound EXACT. Between that and the fact that the song was meant to be a tribute to the Supremes, I think it was an intentional melody swipe.

[organizednoize]

Mis-Teeq 'My Song'/Brandy 'What About Us' - blatant
Mis-Teeq 'Do Me Like That'/ Angie Martinez 'If I Could go' - blatant

Both Mis-Teeq songs were produced by the same producer so it's obvious he has trouble with originality.

[Gorminako]

"Back In My Arms Again," The Supremes
Quote:I lost him once through friends advice
But it's not gonna happen twice
'Cause all advice ever's gotten me
Was many long and sleepless nights 



"Head To Toe," Lisa Lisa + Cult Jam
Quote:Who would have thought that we would become lovers
As friends we were so, so tight

Now that you mention it, that part does sound about the same.  I'd never noticed it before.  Also this is the first time I've heard anything about it being a tribute to the Supremes.  Both songs made it to #1.