A song that sounds like it should be by another band...

[jeffo621]

It could just be me, but I was just listening to Gentle Giant's Three Friends this morning, and every time I listen to it I always think that Prologue sounds like it should be a song by Banco. Just something about it feels so very Italiano...

So, with the disclaimer of not including soundalike/cloney bands (e.g. Starcastle -> Yes) or bands who claim a strong influence (Anekdoten -> King Crimson), can you think of any songs by a band that you listen to and can almost swear that it's by another band?

One that immediately comes to mind is "The Waiting Room," which could possibly pass for a King Crimson improv from a similar time period.

~Jeff

[bob_32_116]

A few people have mentioned America - Horse With no Name, which sounds for all the world like Neil Young.

Also the first time I heard Extreme - More than Words, I had a hard time trying to decide whether I was hearing Simon and Garfunkel, or the Everly Brothers.

[Dave (in MA)]

Camel's Down on the Farm, aside from the crunchy guitar intro, would not have sounded out of place on Rotter's Club or an early Caravan album.

[trurl]

Canned Heat's Going Up The Country sounds like it's by The Muppets.

[No Pride]

Canned Heat's Going Up The Country sounds like it's by The Muppets.

... Kermit singing lead.

[Scott Bails]

Canned Heat's Going Up The Country sounds like it's by The Muppets.

Can't express how much I hate that song.

[Lopez]

Canned Heat's Going Up The Country sounds like it's by The Muppets.

Alan Wilson of Canned Heat sang in that strange falsetto emulating female blue singers of the 20s and 30s. He was incredibly shy and self-conscious (he grew up next door to a friend of mine in Arlington, MA). Singing in someone else's voice helped him overcome anxiety. Apparently not enough, though, as he killed himself at 27.

[trurl]

Yeah, that was sad. It's not just him though, the guitar, flute, drums... that whole tune sounds like it was The Muppets. Except Animal would have given it more balls Having Kermit on vocals just sealed the deal...

[trurl]

As a kid I thought I Love You by the Climax Blues Band was Wings. I know it doesn't sound at all like Paul singing now but it does sound like one of his songs! It certainly never sounded like the same band that did Couldn't Get It Right.

[Garden Dreamer]

Anything on Crest of a Knave sounds like it should be by Dire Straits.

"Night City" by The Sword sounds like it should be a Thin Lizzy song.

[Dave (in MA)]

Anything on Crest of a Knave sounds like it should be by Dire Straits.

Which Dire Straits songs sound like Steel Monkey?

[Lopez]

For years I thought the song "Alone Again Or" by Love was by the Moody Blues; the harmonies, the orchestration were all there. I scoured all my Moody records and couldn't find it. Drove me crazy until a DJ on the MIT college station identified it. Now I had to buy all the Love albums.

[Rarebird]

Which Dire Straits songs sound like Steel Monkey?

I think that one sounded like ZZ Top.

[GuitarGeek]

There's a song by Alan Parsons Project, I forget which one, but it has the line "Maybe that's why I'm so confused" (or something like that). Anyway, for a long time I thought that was a REO Speedwagon song, because I only ever heard it on the radio. I finally Googled some of the lyrics and found I totally had the wrong artist. But I swear that singer sounds like Kevin Cronin.

[simon moon]

I always thought that "Love is Like Oxygen" by The Sweet sounded quite a bit like 10CC.

As far as the "Dire Straits" "Jethro Tull" similarities, Anderson had this to say in 1989,


“We were, in fact, heavily criticized for the Dire Straits flavour of the last album,” Ian confesses. “Martin Barre and I consciously made an effort to avoid that kind of delivery on the new one. So Martin used less of the single coil pick up and I pitched the songs that bit higher and sang them more forcefully as I used to do. On ‘Knave’ I was trying to act out the songs a bit more at the same time singing in a lower register and more quietly to save my vocal chords, because I was worried about my ability to sing at that peak for two hours on stage night after night [when they recorded "Crest, Anderson was still recovering from a throat issue he had a year or 2 before].

“As far as the guitar sound is concerned I know for a fact that in 1981 Mark Knopfler rang up Martin’s guitar maker and ordered some new guitars. When asked what kind of sound he wanted, he said, ‘I want the sound that Martin Barre of Jethro Tull gets’. At that time Knopfler appeared to be playing an off-the-shelf Stratocaster with single coil pickups. Martin was playing Hamer’s with humbucking pickups and was just about to get some single coil Hamers made with the five-way switch and out-of-phase position and all the things that are now associated with Knopfler. I mean, there’s only so many sounds you can get out of the electric guitar; if you’re playing the blues—and it was on our bluesier tracks that it was most noticeable—, then you’re going to sound like Knopfler who made that sound his trademark."

[Jerjo]

The Hollies' "Long Cool Woman" is often mistaken for Creedence Clearwater Revival.

[Gruno]

As a kid I thought I Love You by the Climax Blues Band was Wings. I know it doesn't sound at all like Paul singing now but it does sound like one of his songs! It certainly never sounded like the same band that did Couldn't Get It Right.

I initially thought "Alone Again" was sung by Paul McCartney.

[trurl]

^^^^^^^^
Yep, that one too.

[bob_32_116]

I've mentioned this before, but when I first heard Dire Straits performing Lady Writer, I honestly thought it was Bob Dylan.

[arturs]

Well into the 1990s I thought that the song "No Matter What" was by Paul McCartney.

And, while I personally don't hear too much of a resemblance I read a funny interview with Donald Fagen a while back where he said that people would often ask the Dan to play "Ride Captain Ride" thinking that it was one of their tunes.

[arturs]

I've mentioned this before, but when I first heard Dire Straits performing Lady Writer, I honestly thought it was Bob Dylan.

And I used to think that about "Stuck in the Middle with You"

[Dave (in MA)]

I thought that Knopfler's guitar on the first few DS albums bore a resemblance to J.J. Cale.

[bob_32_116]

Well into the 1990s I thought that the song "No Matter What" was by Paul McCartney.

Understandable, since McCartney did write Badfinger's earlier hit, "Come And Get It".

[PeterG]

Three off the top of my head...

Budapest (JT) should have been by Dire Straits.
Tales of Brave Ulysses (Cream) sounds far too like Procol Harums Cerdes (outside the gates of)released only 2 months before it to be a coincidence...and both with ancient Greek/Turkish titles ....puhleeez!
Conversely Walking in Your Shadow on Uriah Heep's debut album (1970) is simply a copycat of the Cream style, not just the playing, but the song delivery and the melody.

[Zeuhlmate]

For fun I have a few times succeeded in convincing friends that Dixie Dregs: Divided we stand was a Gentle Giant song.
They were obviously not GG experts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzIZlxwNFFA