Originality is great and all, but in the grand scheme of things (that is, centuries of composing and recording music), there is very little music out there that isn’t at least a little derivative of something else. Sometimes, these allusions are intentional and used as a way to honor the artists who influenced the songwriter. Other times, the similarities are entirely accidental and lead to contentious legal battles.
In either instance, the listener is left with the burden of never being able to hear one song without also thinking about the other. And now, dear reader, I pass that burden along to you—and anyone you decide to torture with this same information after you read it.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “More Than A Feeling”
Spin the classic Nirvana song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Boston’s “More Than A Feeling”, and you’ll find more similarities between the two tracks than you might realize. The songs have distinctly different moods and chord qualities, which helps the average listener keep the tracks separate in their mind. But now that you’ve noticed just how much the two rhythm guitar tracks match one another, you’ll never be able to hear either song the same way again.
“American Girl” and “Last Nite”
The Strokes undoubtedly looked to Tom Petty as an influence when solidifying their own sound, so it’s not all that surprising that notes of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” would come out in The Strokes’ “Last Nite”. The connection between the two tracks was obvious enough for Tom Petty to notice it, but as he told Rolling Stone, he didn’t mind. In fact, The Strokes’ brazen admission that, yes, they did rip Petty off, made the “American Girl” songwriter laugh out loud.
“Sweet Home Alabama” and “Werewolves Of London”
Leave it to Kid Rock to remind us all how similar Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” sounds to Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves Of London”. The two 1970s tracks feature similar rhythms and melodies on their main riffs, although the connection was somewhat subtle. Then, Kid Rock sampled both songs together in his 2008 track, “All Summer Long”, permanently gluing the two songs together.
“The Old Man Down The Road” and “Run Through The Jungle”
Ripping off oneself seems like an impossibility in theory, but John Fogerty had to learn the hard way that it still stands up in court. The Creedence Clearwater Revival founding member became one of the few musicians to ever be sued for copyright infringement of his own songs after CCR’s label, Fantasy Records, determined that “Run Through The Jungle” sounded awfully similar to John Fogerty’s solo track, “The Old Man Down The Road”.
Fogerty wrote them both, so that seems obvious. But because they were two separate musical entities, the label felt as though they had legal ground to stand on. Ultimately, Fogerty won the case. However, he was still on the hook for a million dollars in legal fees until the U.S. Supreme Court approved Fogerty’s appeal to have Fantasy pay them.
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