Sound-a-bit-alikes
The K-pop earworm of "Dynamite" has been wriggling around in my ear a lot lately, and not just because I happened to notice its fairly unconventional chord progression. It's because it reminds of another song, and I only just figured out which: Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend." The phrasing is different but the movement is the same: A descent from the tonic of a minor ii chord, resolving to a major I. Here's "Dynamite":
And here's "If I Was Your Girlfriend":
It got me thinking of other songs that uncannily evoke others, much as I've previously noted the obvious affinity among the melodies of "Crying in the Chapel" and "In a Sentimental Mood" (and, incidentally, "Someone to Watch Over Me"). But whereas that similarity was entirely in the melody, with fascinating divergences in the harmony, today's examples are cases in which both the melody and harmony echo between two songs, as "Dynamite" and "Girlfriend" do. Here's another: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's power ballad "Shallow," whose striking chorus,
kept reminding of something. A descent from the third of a minor iv into the major I...where else had I heard that? Oh yes, of course:
That's Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," for those playing at home. I'll cite just one more: Every time I would hear No Doubt's "Don't Speak" on the radio back in the day, it gave me such a strong whiff of another familiar song that I found it distracting, even off-putting.
Now that I've sussed out that it's Frank Loesser's great "I've Never Been in Love Before," from Guys and Dolls, I feel more warmly toward "Don't Speak," oddly enough.
What are some of your favorite almost-soundalikes in this vein?
And here's "If I Was Your Girlfriend":
It got me thinking of other songs that uncannily evoke others, much as I've previously noted the obvious affinity among the melodies of "Crying in the Chapel" and "In a Sentimental Mood" (and, incidentally, "Someone to Watch Over Me"). But whereas that similarity was entirely in the melody, with fascinating divergences in the harmony, today's examples are cases in which both the melody and harmony echo between two songs, as "Dynamite" and "Girlfriend" do. Here's another: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's power ballad "Shallow," whose striking chorus,
kept reminding of something. A descent from the third of a minor iv into the major I...where else had I heard that? Oh yes, of course:
That's Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," for those playing at home. I'll cite just one more: Every time I would hear No Doubt's "Don't Speak" on the radio back in the day, it gave me such a strong whiff of another familiar song that I found it distracting, even off-putting.
Now that I've sussed out that it's Frank Loesser's great "I've Never Been in Love Before," from Guys and Dolls, I feel more warmly toward "Don't Speak," oddly enough.
What are some of your favorite almost-soundalikes in this vein?
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