Jan 082009
You know the rules: one submission at a time, last man standing gets a coveted RTH No-Prize. I’ll begin with:
“Baby Talks Dirty,” The Knack
… a rewrite of “My Sharona”
You know the rules: one submission at a time, last man standing gets a coveted RTH No-Prize. I’ll begin with:
“Baby Talks Dirty,” The Knack
… a rewrite of “My Sharona”
Chuck Berry’s No Particular Place To Go is a rewrite of School Days
I’ll play. Is You Wear It Well close enough to Maggie May for you?
Does the first song have to be written by the band as well, or just done by them?
Specifically, does Stroll on by the Yardbirds count even though they didn’t write Train Kept a Rolling?
The Kinks:
You Really Got Me –>
I Need You
Aerosmith’s Crazy is pretty much the same song as Cryin’.
Raspberry Beret and Manic Monday by Prince seem to be about the same.
mockcarr, i don’t hear it.
re. the yardbirds, it seems that ‘stroll on’ shouldn’t
count, as both the band has to be ripping off itself, not a song by someone else, right?
but speaking of the yardbirds, i think “evil hearted you” is VERY close to “heart full of soul.” can’t remember which one came first.
The verses.
Here’s a pretty blatant one: Chubby Checker’s The Twist followed by Let’s Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer.
Huey Piano Smith & the Clowns followed up Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu with Tu-ber-cu-lucas and the Sinus Blues.
Soul Survivor and It Must Be Hell by The Stones.
James Sheppard wrote the doo-wop classic A Thousand Miles Away for his group The Heartbeats, and then later he rewrote the same song (to the point of losing a copyright violation suit) as Daddy’s Home for his next group, Shep & the Limelites. I know, technically a different ‘band,’ but essentially the same artist.
The Old Man Down the Road and Run Through the Jungle
What’s that Kinks song that’s a rewrite of “All Day and All the Night” called, “Paranoia”? Yeah, I know, they’ve probably got 6 other songs that are rewrites of “All Day…”
Every single Seeds song is a re-write of “Pushin’ Too Hard.”
Not to mention the Kinks ripping off the Jumpin’ Jack Flash riff with Catch Me Now I’m Falling.
How ’bout The Clash: “Clash City Rockers”…”Guns on the Roof”…both of which were heavily indebted to “Can’t Explain.”
Sort of under the same feel as the Chubby Checker one mentioned by BigSteve…
How about Leslie Gore’s…
“It’s my Party” followed shamelessly by
“Now it’s Judy’s turn to Cry”. I think that was the title.
“Heatwave”…”Quicksand”…
In the Aerosmith Biography they admit that they frequently would play thier songs backwards and strum along in order to come up with new chord progressions.
I prefer Let’s Twist Again to The Twist!
There was a song On Into The Great Wide Open by Tom Petty that Benmont Tench called “Re-Fallin” ( I think it was “All The Wrong Reasons”)
Ramones did Creetin Hop, We’re A Happy Family (both great) and then Cretin’ Family (which was not so great.)
My brother’s band wrote a 3rd TWIST song called ” Twistin’ Up A Chubby” that is better than either (and better than The Wilbury Twist to boot)
King Crimson’s entire 80’s catalog following Discipline.
Four Tops “It’s the Same Old Song”, a witty rewrite of “I Can’t Help Myself”.
There are at least two obvious reasons for a band (or its producers/songwriters) rewriting something that worked earlier: 1) Who doesn’t want a follow-up hit? 2) Songwriters often have particular styles, including rhythms and chord changes that are key to their sound. I think Ray Davies and Pete Townshend are great example of the latter. Artists more interested in hits, like Motown artists or bands that may have known they had a little less to offer/gain long term (eg, The Romantics, who I think had a follow-up to “What I Like About You” that was in the same vein – but I can’t be sure), were more likely to have the former reason for their rewrites. As a by the way extension to this thread, if I may, have any songwriters of any merit within the Halls of Rock ever found themselves following either or both of these courses? I know I can trace a few “family lines” of songs within my own writing over the years simply because of my style and interests. I enjoy spotting this stuff in my own and others’ works.
The Who song Rael that came before Sparks and the Underture on Tommy had essentially the same chord pattern with a simpler arrangement.
Would “Silas Stingy” be considered Entwistle’s attempt at cashing in on “Boris the Spider?”
Stones: Live with Me / Bitch.
mod asks: “if I may, have any songwriters of any merit within the Halls of Rock ever found themselves following either or both of these courses?”
i have a song on the second photon band album called “maybe in november” about a difficult relationship.
later, i used virtually the same formula for a song called “groundhog day,” but rather than the months being September, November, and December, the lyrics are about the frozen hearts of February thawing in the warming of march…depending, of course, upon whether or not Punxatawny Phil sees his own shadow (and whether or not the lovers in the song are scared of theirs).
Nobody cited Nickelback yet?
Particular songs, Cher? I couldn’t tell one of their songs from one of a dozen songs by similar bands.
Songs I’m surprised the bands who did them didn’t try to rewrite – am I not aware of or forgetting the rewrites: “Louie Louie,” “Stepping Stone,” “Gloria” (Shadows of Knight – Van Morrison was already spitting the bit of pop stardom, but I do recall Burt Burns getting him to do a “Brown-Eyed Girl” follow up – I’ll have to check).
I’ve also got to pull out Neil Diamond song titles. He seems to have two basic templates for his songs, some of which are very much alike. Patti Smith also works with a limited palette, but I’m not sure if her similar sounding songs are really rewrites – it would be like saying someone breathes pretty much the same way every time they inhale and exhale.
Them: “Would You, Could You” is basically an attempt to catch the ear of people who liked “Here Comes the Night.”
hey…why hasn’t anybody mentioned the early output of our beloved Beach Boys?
mod, i think there’s a third reason for this kind of follow up single…it’s to establish (or capitalize on) *the sound* of a band. this is what i mean by the example above. “Would you, Could you” is a great song in its own right, but it’s cleverly crafted to instantly recall the sound of “Here Comes the Night”.
So we’ve got something in between your blatant cash-in on the one hand, and your ‘creature of habit’ explanation on the other.
Are any of these follow ups better than their predecessors?
NIckelback:You’ve all heard this, right?
http://megaswf.com/view/ae5be0fc5f3cc7b1ca122edffe6489b1.html
That’s AMAZING, Cher! Thanks. I’d never heard either of those songs as far as I can recall. Definitely efficient!
Has anyone else ever thought Elvis Costello’s “The Greatest Thing” is a second attempt at writing his earlier “Lover’s Walk?”
The Esquires had a big hit in 1967 with a song called “Get On Up”. Their next single was a song called “And Get Away” which sounded just like the previous song to the point that it seemed to be an extension or Part 2.
Led Zeppelin’s “Tea for One” (from Presence) is definitely a “Since I’ve been Lovin’ You” retread.
Because of the thematic arrangement of both the What’s Going On and Let’s Get it On albums, aren’t a good deal of the songs continuations of the title tracks? These thematic variation songs probably don’t count, though, right Hrrundi?
As to “Tea For One” and “Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You,” isn’t every blues song just a re-write of every other anyway?
Pud asks: As to “Tea For One” and “Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You,” isn’t every blues song just a re-write of every other anyway?
Good gracious, Mr. Man. If 13 is your age I apologize, but you need to listen to just a few very good blues records and ratchet up the listening nerves just a bit, eh?
thank you, slocum.
John said that “yes it is” was a shameless (and failed) attempt to replicate “this boy.”
Ahem, I’m probably older than you and probably have heard more blues albums, many more, except for the fact that ALL OF THEM ARE THE SAME!
Obviously I’m exaggerating, but I feel no shame in being one of those unhip folk who think blues is a really tedious artform, whereby the same old cliches and licks are trotted out over and over again, and anyone like me who dares question them is accused of having no soul, of not being able to understand someone else’s pain. Hogwash!! How about NOT ending every song with the same descending pattern? How about banishing the “du-DUH-duh-duh” “I’m A Man” riff forever?
It’s even worse when some blues song is thrown onto a rock album by a bunch of young white hard rock posers. Every single late 60s/early 70s hard rock album is ruined by some piece of crap 8 minute blues workout complete with boring solos and quasi-anguished singing. And don’t get me started on lyrical sexism.
There are occasional blues-rock albums that excite me. I advise you to hunt down Denny King’s EVIL WIND IS BLOWING, for example. And Zephyr’s SUNSET RIDE has a major blues-rock element, and easily makes my top 10 all time greatest unknown major label albums. It’s a truly tremendous work of art.
And yes, I dig Howlin’ Wolf, to name one creator of what you would call “really good blues records.”
I also dig power pop, and I’m growing more and more fond of 70s soft rock every day. Most of it was written by people who actually knew more than three chords. If you want to sell me on minimalism, point me to the Ramones or the Modern Lovers, not Muddy Waters or any white boy who covers his songs.
Back to the subject of this thread, I prsent to you all Danny & The Juniors, “At The Hop” and then “Rock And Roll Is Here to Stay.”
And, um…”Bo Diddley” and every other Bo Diddley song.
I’d say the real Kinks rewrite starts right at the top, “All Day and All of the Night” was a rewrite of “You Really Got Me”. And a decidedly inferior one. The cool thing about You Really Got Me was the way that the melody cut across the back and forth guitar chords in the verse and when it hit the chorus, it lined right up and sang right with them. On all Day and All of The Night, its clear that the song started not with inspiration, but with the back and forth chord sound of the earlier hit since, from the top, the vocal just goes right with the guitar rhythm.
Another, for me, inferior rewrite is “You Better Watch Yourself”, known to me generally as “Tertiary Modern”.
Do you mean “You Better Watch Your Step,” Geo? It’s funny that we’ve suggested two songs involving songs from Trust. As the various Costello reissues and bonus tracks attest, there’s a guy who had no shame in reworking his material. How many of the bonus cuts from those albums are rough drafts of what would eventually become final songs. Weren’t a lot of the songs from Trust leftovers from previous songwriting efforts? It’s possible that “You Better Watch Your Step” was actually composed before the previously released “Secondary Modern.”
I expected the comment regarding You Better Watch your Step (right) being an earlier composition to be floated by Berlyant. That only makes it worse: the guy rewrites and punches up an old tune to create the very effective Get Happy!!! tune, and then goes back to dust off the buggy beta version and sell it as a new song. What’s up with that?
Isn’t Clean Money just Love For Tender faster with the Attractions bleating “moneeeee” behind it?
“Clean Money” was the first draft, I think. “Love for Tender” is way better.
Wow, we really are all E.C. pince nezzers.