00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for another top 10 rip-off
00:11songs that you forgot were totally awesome.
00:1410.
00:20It's Now or Never
00:22Elvis Presley
00:23Plagerism was far more common in the 1950s and 1960s than it is now, not only because
00:30of the lack of internet made it way harder to spot.
00:33It's now or never, come hold me tight.
00:40Songs would borrow melodies from others, and crafty writers would pen versions of foreign
00:46hits to reproduce for their own country's airwaves.
00:49Tomorrow will be tonight.
00:55Elvis Presley's legendary 1960 hit It's Now or Never didn't try to hide the fact that
01:01it was influenced heavily by the Neapolitan song O Sole Mio.
01:05Manada, sole!
01:13Despite the attention that Elvis' version received, it's arguable that the original is far more
01:19historically relevant.
01:21Pretty much every tenor worth his salt in the last 130 years has probably covered this one,
01:27including Luciano Pavarotti, Enrico Caruso, Andrea Bocelli, and many more.
01:33My love will...
01:379.
01:39Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
01:42Tame Impala
01:43The similarities between Tame Impala's 2012 indie hit Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
01:49and Pablo Ruiz's Oceano are unquestionable.
01:53It feels like I'm only going backwards.
02:00But did Kevin Parker really plagiarize a sugary sweet teen pop song from the late 80s?
02:06Who knows what the Tame Impala creative listens to in his spare time?
02:14Well, we'll let you be the judge of that.
02:1610.
02:18Either way, there's no denying that they sound almost identical in spots.
02:26A Chilean website noted the similarities, though the editors later claimed it wasn't serious.
02:32However, Ruiz reportedly considered taking legal action, which he never did.
02:37To this day, Parker remains the only artist with a songwriting credit on this one.
02:428.
02:47M.O.R.
02:49Blur
02:50Blur didn't just rip off David Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging with their song M.O.R.
02:55They basically took the whole foundation and vibe of the tune and changed the words.
03:11Was it merely a tribute to an artist that Damon Albarn and company admired and were actually
03:19friendly with?
03:20Maybe.
03:21But it took legal intervention from Bowie and co-writer Brian Eno in order to get their songwriting
03:33credit on this one.
03:34These days, the song has Bowie and Eno fully credited, and is largely viewed as a celebration
03:40of the 70s music that they each perfected.
03:43But even still, it's most certainly a rip-off.
03:46According to our criteria, at least.
03:537.
03:54Avril Lavigne
03:57This one is either a major coincidence, or Avril Lavigne is lying through her teeth.
04:04I don't like your girlfriends.
04:05No way, no way.
04:06I think you need a new one.
04:09When she put out the song Girlfriend in 2007, it was an instant hit.
04:14But 70s power-pop band The Reubenews felt that Lavigne's song borrowed excessively from
04:19their own 1979 single.
04:21And here's the funny part.
04:28Their song was titled, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.
04:32Avril countered by saying that she had never heard the tune before, and that she believed
04:37that they were both influenced by the Rolling Stones hit Get Off My Cloud.
04:44Still, it wouldn't explain the whole boyfriend-girlfriend connection.
04:51Though they eventually settled, the jury is still definitely out on this one.
04:566.
04:59Given To Fly
05:04Pearl Jam
05:05The 90s grunge movement and rock revival felt a little bit closer to the 60s and 70s than
05:11anything that came in the decade before.
05:13So, naturally, there was always going to be some crossover.
05:17I could've turned in, turned in, but only turned on.
05:22And for Pearl Jam, there's no denying just how similar their track Given To Fly sounds
05:27to Led Zeppelin's classic, Going To California.
05:30Spend my days with a woman of time.
05:33Thankfully, the similarities were so obvious that Pearl Jam never really tried to hide the
05:38fact that they were influenced by Zeppelin.
05:40In fact, they even played it live on stage with Robert Plant and segued into Going To
05:52California.
05:53It was a nice gesture, and let's be real, it's not like Plant and Jimmy Page haven't ripped
05:58off a song or two, or several dozen, in their career.
06:065.
06:07Are You Gonna Be My Girl
06:09Jet
06:10This one boils down to a drum beat and a bass line that have quite the storied history.
06:151, 2, 3, take my hand and come with me because you look so fine that I really wanna make
06:20you mine.
06:22When Jet released their smash hit, Are You Gonna Be My Girl, in 2003, it pretty clearly
06:28took major influence from Iggy Pop's tune, Lust For Life, co-written by David Bowie.
06:33Here comes Johnny again.
06:36But before any Iggy fans could get up in arms about the whole thing, it became clear that
06:42both songs were at fault.
06:44I know where I got my susan.
06:48Because, in reality, they had each been directly preceded by the Supreme song, You Can't Hurry
06:55Love, later covered by Phil Collins.
06:57You can't hurry love, girl, you just have to wait.
07:01The best part?
07:02All of these songs are amazing, so we're not complaining in the slightest.
07:06Are you gonna be my girl, yeah?
07:124.
07:13Do You Think I'm Sexy?
07:15Rod Stewart
07:16Rod Stewart has been around the music business for long enough to know when he made a mistake.
07:22She sits alone waiting for suggestions.
07:26He certainly had a catalog of totally original music that proves his compositional skills,
07:32but when he dropped Do You Think I'm Sexy in 1978 and was accused of plagiarism by Brazilian
07:38music legend Jorge Ben-Jour, he didn't put up much of a fight.
07:42The similarities between Stewart's song and Ben-Jour's Taj Mahal when it hits its refrain
07:54are beyond any doubt.
08:03Stewart even revealed that he was in Brazil that year at a festival and unconsciously ripped
08:08off the whole thing.
08:10Jour donated all royalties he received in the settlement to UNICEF, and the pair held
08:15no ill will about the whole thing.
08:213.
08:26Come As You Are
08:27Nirvana
08:28Nirvana truly struck gold when they released Nevermind in 1991, achieving mainstream success
08:34in the most unlikely fashion.
08:36Come As You Are
08:40But for as much as Kurt Cobain admitted that he was basically trying to write a pixie song
08:45with Smells Like Teen Spirit, he wasn't quite as transparent about the second single.
08:50Well I swear that I don't let go
08:55Supposedly, Kurt was anxious about releasing Come As You Are once he realized he had unconsciously
09:01ripped off 80s by Killing Joke pretty blatantly.
09:04No official lawsuit came out of it, but Killing Joke themselves were reportedly annoyed by the
09:16mood.
09:17To his credits, Cobain never tried to deny it, and both songs are excellent.
09:22But Nirvana made a boatload of cash off a hook that was clearly not theirs.
09:312.
09:32I Saw Her Standing There
09:35The Beatles
09:36The culture was a little different back in the day when it came to stealing other people's
09:41songs.
09:42Genres like blues and folk are built on the idea of the same songs evolving in different
09:53forms.
09:54But when Paul McCartney and The Beatles covered Chuck Berry's I'm Talking About You and decided
09:59to directly recycle the bass line, it was a little sus.
10:11Sure, Maka has turned his hand to a number of iconic bass runs in the past, but here he
10:17basically just copy-and-pasted it into I Saw Her Standing There.
10:22Sure, the two songs rock equally hard, but once you hear this instance of melodic theft, you
10:33won't be able to unhear it.
10:36It's a little different.
10:571.
10:58Dazed and Confused
11:00Led Zeppelin
11:01There are quite a few tunes in the Led Zeppelin catalog that have been borrowed, take a whole
11:06lot of love, which is a pretty blatant rip on Willie Dixon's You Need Love.
11:111.
11:12Dazed and Confused
11:15But for our money, it's gotta be the debut album classic Dazed and Confused that takes
11:20the cake.
11:212.
11:22Dazed and Confused
11:27For one thing, it's a very clear example of melody and lyrical theft.
11:31Without proper accreditation.
11:32In fact, Zeppelin were so shameless in their plagiarism that they took key elements of Jake
11:38Holmes' song, also titled Dazed and Confused, and didn't even change the name.
11:432.
11:44Dazed and Confused
11:48Zeppelin's song is basically a tribute to the original, but Holmes didn't see a nickel.
11:53Jimmy Page basically ignored him for decades until Holmes brought the band to court in 2010,
11:58with a settlement resulting in inspired by Jake Holmes being added to subsequent reissues.
12:033.
12:04Did we miss any suspiciously derivative songs on our list?
12:16Let us know in the comments below!
12:173.
12:18Dazed and Confused
12:201.
12:212.
12:221.
12:232.
12:242.
12:252.
12:262.
12:273.
12:282.
12:293.
12:302.
12:312.
12:323.
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