Songs That Sound Suspiciously Similar- Page 5

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 1/14/09 at 12:36am

Bumping this because We Open in Venice came on random on my iPod and I swore it was We Need A Little Christmas at first, then noticed how much both songs sound the same.

[Acaila]

Posted: 1/14/09 at 11:17am

There's definitely more that I lapse into singing a different song, but the ones that come to mind now are that I came out of Into the Woods singing "No-one's Gonna Harm You", and out of Flora the Red Menace humming something from Chicago.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 1:49pm

Thought of another one today listening to Footloose. There's a little piece of "One Short Day" from Wicked that sounds like a little piece of "On Any Sunday" from Footloose. In Footloose Ren sings "And maybe things won't be so bad. And maybe I won't miss my Dad." and in "One Short Day" they sing a similar musical phrase to "So I'll be back for good someday. To make my life and make my way."

[Bialyhoos22]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 6:07pm

"Keep it Gay", "La Cage Aux Folles" and "Be Our Guest" all have strong melodic similarities between them, as was pointed out by Gary Beach during his mash-up of them at the Broadway Originals concert. And "Be Our Guest" and "Les Poissons" are almost identical as people have pointed out.

"Heil Myself" from The Producers is very similar to "Howdy Neighbor/Happy Harvest" from the film Summer Stock. And "That Face" is extremely similar to "High and Low" from The Band Wagon, with some melody lines being exactly the same.


Updated On: 1/18/09 at 06:07 PM

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 6:21pm

When I did the producers last fall, our director explained that a reason why a lot of the songs sound similar to the songs of the old MGM/Broadway Musicals is because The Producers is a throwback to those sorts of shows. Mel Brooks was always a huge fan of those Golden Age musicals. It would have been stupid to add WICKED-Y sorts of pop songs to a show that takes place in the '50s.

[timesquare01]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 9:59am

I think the whole Hairspray "borrowing" popular 60's songs to serve as the underlying chord progressions for Hairspray is really stealing. The Wedding Singer does the SAME thing. To the extent that my father didnt believe that i wasnt listening to "real" 80's music once. I mean, does it make the most original score ever? no. But does it make a great, listenable score? Abslolutely.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 10:35am

We wanna talk Jon Larson? "La Vie Boheme" is full of it. For example, "Bisexuals, trisexuals..." on is a dead rip-off of at least the style of the long version of "Ain't Got No" in HAIR (the protest rally), and under "Hey, mister, she's my sister..." I'd swear to God that's the riff from "On Broadway," the song covered by everyone from George Benson to Eric Carmen.

Also, at least one song was completely stolen melody-wise from another writer's project, but Jon had died before he could be called out on it.

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 2:37pm

Gvendo, you're not talking about Sunday from tick, tick...BOOM! are you?

[Renart]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 1:18pm

I was listenting to Charles Strouse's Nightingale for the first time yesterday and during "Who Are These People?" there's a recurrent musical theme that sounds exactly like Goodnight Saigon. So when the chorus of children sang, "The snowflakes humming, the raindrops drumming," all I could hear was "We met as soulmates on Parris Island."

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 1:33pm

Schmerg, I have to agree with Les Poissons and Be Our Guest. But I guess that is understandable considering the people involved with the music were the same for both shows.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:15pm

I think that there's a part of "Say it Somehow" that sounds like "Loving You" from Passion.

I agree. There's also a musical interlude in "Loving You" that sounds like "Pretty Women." And while we're at it, "Ballad of Guiteau" from Assassins reminds me of "Henry Ford" from Ragtime. (The "look on the bright side" part.)

[metropolis10111]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:59pm

I agree yet for some reason Sondheim and a few others are held to different standards and for them it's borrowing for all others is stealing.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:12pm

I KNOW THE DEPRESSION'S DEPRESSING...
WE'LL HAVE A DALMATION PLANTATION...

That thought has been scaring me to no end!

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:26pm

wouldn't "Henry Ford" technically sound like the "Ballad of Guiteau," since Assassins was written first.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:51pm

these probably don't count since they are all from the same show, but 3 songs from wonderful town are literally identical- What A Waste, Pass the Football, and the beginning of A Quiet Girl. It annoys the living hell out of me.

[bwaymizfit2]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:27pm

There's definitely more, but the top 3 I can think of off the top of my head are:

1. "Coffee Shop Nights" from Curtains reminds me quite a bit of "On the Steps of the Palace" (i.e. "A perfectly good life" = "He's a very smart prince" through the rest of that first verse)...

2a. The beginning verses of "Who I'd Be" from Shrek and "Inutil" from In The Heights ("I'd Guess I'd be a Hero..." = "My father was a farmer...")

2b. This is probably just me b/c the introductions don't sound the same (except that they're both in the key of d-flat), but I always have to resist the urge to sing "In Whatever Time We Have" from Children of Eden coming out of the "Who I'd Be" intro

3. "Runaway Cart" from Les Mis...there's that little instrumental bit (after Valjean frees Fauchlevant) that sounds like it belongs in "Evita"

[bwaymizfit2]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:43pm

4. Also from Shrek, the first bit of the Donkey/Shrek counterpart of "Travel Song", ("Sing a Song, Hit The Trail"/"Why Me? Why Me?") reminds me of "Fugue For Tinhorns"

5. Largely because they both have Sutton Foster Belting a C on "Love", but also because the orchestra track is very similar as well, the last ten seconds of "Gimme, Gimme" and "Bride's Lament" are almost indistinguishable.

[bwaymizfit2]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:48pm

Last one for a while...but I can't believe I forgot this one at first:

6. The title melody line to "Hold Me, Bat Boy" is identical to the title line of "One Night Only"

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:17pm

Not entirely musical theatre, but the beginning of Build a Wall from Shrek the Musical sounds exactly like Tom Petty's Free Falling.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:46pm

I remember listening to some Sondheim song and I was said, "Hey that sounded like some music in Oklahoma!" Don't remember what it is though.

metropolis - I agree. With Webber it's stealing. With everyone else, it is "borrowing" or "lifting."

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:59pm

ALSO, the theme in CIVIL WAR is the same as moments in the BACK TO THE FUTURE theme (the trumpets)

[Jenna Maroney]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 9:36pm

I wager "Bring on the Men" was cut from "Jekyll & Hyde" because it's exactly the same tune as that '60s pop chestnut "Those Were the Days." That is, when it's not ripping off "Maison des loons" from "Beauty and the Beast."

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 9:41pm

wouldn't "Henry Ford" technically sound like the "Ballad of Guiteau," since Assassins was written first.

Oh, I'd never accuse Sondheim of ripping off Ragtime! I just meant that that's what I think of every time I hear that song! After he sings "Look on the bright side," I mentally complete that phrase with, "...to Henry Ford!"

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 9:59pm

'We wanna talk Jon Larson? "La Vie Boheme" is full of it. For example, "Bisexuals, trisexuals..." on is a dead rip-off of at least the style of the long version of "Ain't Got No" in HAIR''

Umm... what are you talking about. No, it is not.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 10:08pm

I wager "Bring on the Men" was cut from "Jekyll & Hyde" because it's exactly the same tune as that '60s pop chestnut "Those Were the Days." That is, when it's not ripping off "Maison des loons" from "Beauty and the Beast."

Frank started writing Jekyll and Hyde in 1980. I'd wager that "Bring on the Men" was written long before "Maison des Lunes". Beauty and the Beast just made it to Broadway first.

Also, "Bring on the Men" was cut because the Broadway producers wanted a song about good and evil and it was felt that "Bring on the Men" was too much of a cabaret act for Linda and not the best for Lucy as a character. Personally, I think that was a stupid choice, but I'm not a Broadway producer.