Ripoffs

[alex]

No one has stated the most obvious and utterly shameless ripoff in history, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, stealing directly from "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop?

[kosmo vinyl]

Nirvana's "Come As You Are" bears a striking resemblance to Killing Jokes "Eighties"... According to Wikipedia there is a bit of a did they or didn't they sue Nirvana over the matter discussion.

[terry]

"Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire reminds me of "On the Dark Side" by Eddie & the Cruisers/John Cafferty.

[beetsnotbeats]

Originally posted by terry:
  "Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire reminds me of "On the Dark Side" by Eddie & the Cruisers/John Cafferty.

Of course,  AF wears its Springsteen on its sleeve and E&TC was a fictitious E Street Band.

[thirsty moore]

The Modern Lovers "Roadrunner" is a tightened up posi version of VU's "Sister Ray."  Even down to the keyboard solo!

[sweetcell]

$6 yuenglings
 
 (my inner hipster made me do it)

[Frank Gallagher]

You could get the musical library of the Beatles and match every single Oasis song up to one of them......except the one that is a total ripoff of "I'd like to teach the world to sing" (can't rmember the title)

[bearman🐻]

Elastica's "Connection" completely rips off "3 Girl Rhumba" by Wire.

[Relaxer]

James Brown totally ripped off Bowie's "Fame" for his single "Hot". Apparently Bowie's manager at the time said, 'if it's a hit, we'll sue'im, otherwise, fuck it.' It wasn't a hit.

[HoyaSaxa03]

smash mouth's "walking on the sun" completely ripped off the zombies' "she's not there"

[sweetcell]

i realize that half the people here will have no idea (or care of) what i'm talking about, and the other half will probably resent me bringing it up, but:
 
 the main (synth) line from "computer love" by glass candy is a note-for-note steal of coldplay's "talk"... which isn't saying much about glass candy, now is it?  

[Frank Gallagher]

OMC, How Bizarre - Ben E King, Spanish Harlem

[edbert]

I love how the old blues singers totally ripped each other off. This sample below by DC blues-snooze Ruby Hayes just cracks me up. Instead of One Bourbon One Scotch One beer, it's One SCOTCH One Bourbon One Beer, and the verses are semi-different too.  Haven't seen the liner notes and so I don't even know if it's a real ripoff or not; for all I know this is how it was originally written way before John Lee Hooker or whoever... but someone definitely got ripped off somewhere.  That'd be hilarious if Hayes takes writing credit for it
 http://cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/rubyhayes-04.m3u

[ratioci nation]

Ambulance Ltd -  Primitive (The Way That I Treat You)
 
 rips off
 
 Garageland -  Love Song