Musical coincidences # 294

This is a triple-header coincidence, with two relatively recent songs borrowing a melody from an extremely well-known pop song from the 1960s.

My new friend Barry (Hi, Barry!) told me how shameless musical magpies Green Day nicked the main melody from Petula Clark‘s “Downtown” for one of their songs.

Take it away, Barry:

Green Day – “Waiting“ (2000) (excerpt)

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Petula Clark – “Downtown“ (1964) (excerpt)

Link

I went a-lookin’ on the Internet to see if anyone else had noticed it something so noticeable, and I found the following web page:

• Sounds Just Like: Green Day’s “Waiting” sounds like Petula Clark’s “Downtown”

Yes it does.

On that page somebody added this comment:

“Avril Lavigne‘s ‘Underground’ kind of sounds the same too.”

Let’s see…

Avril Lavigne – “Alice“ (2010) (excerpt)

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Yep.

Here are the full versions:

Green Day – “Waiting“ (2000)

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Petula Clark – “Downtown“ (1964)

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Avril Lavigne – “Alice“ (2010)

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Musical coincidences # 263

I had no idea about this, er, “coincidence” until I saw it in a Cracked article entitled “7 Famous Musicians Who Stole Some of Their Biggest Hits“:

Green Day – “American Idiot“ (2004) (excerpt)

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Dillinger Four – “Doublewhiskeycokenoice” (1998) (excerpt)

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I’d have no hesitation in placing that in the “Unbelievably Blatant” category.

Here are the full versions:

Green Day – “American Idiot“ (2004)

Link

Dillinger Four – “Doublewhiskeycokenoice” (1998)

Link

Musical coincidences # 97

After yesterday’s coincidence supplied by Stonefish (Hi, Stonester!), here’s one of the coincidences suggested by Mr. Fabulous*.

Here’s the start of a certain Green Day song:

Green Day – “Warning“ (2000) (excerpt)

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And here’s the start of a certain Kinks song:

The Kinks – “Picture Book” (1968) (excerpt)

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Yes, indeedy.

By the way, I am loving these suggestions from other people. Sort of like Musical Coincidence Volunteers. Keep ’em comin’, folks.

Here are the full versions:

Green Day – “Warning“ (2000)

Link

The Kinks – “Picture Book” (1968)

Link

(*Beware: Mr. Fabulous sent me a squillion of them.)

Musical coincidences # 3

I heard Green Day‘s latest effort “21 Guns” a little while ago, and it took me a few minutes before I realised why the melody in the verse sounded familiar…

Now try the verse of Neil Young‘s “Heart Of Gold“…

If you didn’t quite catch that, here’s a mash-up of the two:

And here are the full tracks:

Green Day – “21 Guns” (2009)

Neil Young – “Heart Of Gold” (1972)