Bands that admit they purposefully ripped off/copied a song

[WentEast]

Not the usual Zeppelin stealing old blues songs or the lawsuit over Stairway to Heaven. I mean genuine admissions.

I can think of three offhand: Paul Stanley said "I Stole Your Love" ripped off Deep Purple's "Burn" and the outro to "Hotter Than Hell" ripped off "Iron Man". The latter is less clear i think. BOC said "Cities in Flame With Rock and Roll" ripped off Sabbath's "The Wizard".

Who/what else?

[HueyRamone]

Paul also admitted Hotter than Hell is All Right Now

[WentEast]

Paul also admitted Hotter than Hell is All Right Now

Yep, I forgot about that. Makes HTH a twofer.

[RaceFan3]

Not sure if they ever admitted it, but Crue's "Looks that Kill" is a blatant copy of Priest's "You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise"

[HueyRamone]

Not sure if they ever admitted it, but Crue's "Looks that Kill" is a blatant copy of Priest's "You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise"

And Knock em Dead Kid is Grinder.

[VoiVod13]

Mellencamp - I fight authority

Crickets/Clash/Bobby Fuller Four - I fought the law

[daveg]

Only one I can think of is The Strokes admitting they ripped off Pettys American Girl on Last Nite.

I could be wrong, but I think Petty was gonna sue them, but heard them admit they ripped it off. He thought it was hilarious and just let it go. Or something along those lines

[GreatWhiteSnake]

Jet/Iggy Pop? Did they ever own up to that? Fairly blatant. Unless it's super duper obvious though I usually give a pass. It's hard to write something completely original 'yo...

[Bono Nettencourt]

Only one I can think of is The Strokes admitting they ripped off Pettys American Girl on Last Nite.

I could be wrong, but I think Petty was gonna sue them, but heard them admit they ripped it off. He thought it was hilarious and just let it go. Or something along those lines

Its really not that much of a rip-off tho... kinda slowed down and backwards.

[JackieDaytona]

I want to say I heard that Lemmy admitted to ripping off "Tush" to make "No Class." He was a big ZZ Top fan. He also ripped off "Cat Scatch Fever" for "Fire Storm Hotel" but I don't recall him admitting that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jrLfyvVkXU - Fire Storm Hotel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg_bWlmbeb0 - No Class

This was never admitted as far as I know, but I don't know how Warrant wasn't sued for "Hollywood (So Far, So Good)" since it's pretty identical to "Jane Says." Yet they also borrowed "Bye Bye Love" from The Cars for "Down Boys" and got away with that too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLs13N_uBmc - Hollywood

[Bono Nettencourt]

Not sure if they ever admitted it, but Crue's "Looks that Kill" is a blatant copy of Priest's "You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise"

And Knock em Dead Kid is Grinder.

And Dr. Feelgood is AC/DCs "Night of the Long Knives".

[MattleyCrue]

Thank god for the bomb ozzy reminds me of ain’t talkin about love

[SterileEyes1]

Tom Morello admitted that the main riff to Audioslave’s Cochise is lifted from Pantera’s I’m Broken.

Offspring’s Why Don’t You Get A Job bites Ob La Di, O Bla Da blatantly enough to where I’d be amazed if they didn’t admit it right out of the gate but I don’t have a quote or anything.

As far as people ripping off Tom Petty, I’ve always been amused that with RHCP and Dani California, he basically said “ah whatever, these things happen” (Rick Rubin connection maybe?) but when it was Sam Smith he’s just like “I’m suing this motherfucker”

Personally speaking I can’t even keep track of how many times I’ve written/recorded something and then some time later, sometimes even years later, “Oh shit, that’s totally ____ this song.” Guessing every songwriter here has had similar experiences.

[Hellsinkey]

Noel Gallagher has admitted he's has ripped off other songs for Oasis. All the Young Dudes for Don't Look Back in Anger and Stand by Me. This Guy's In Love With You for Half The World Away also.

And there's more:
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.music.o ... rNfs?pli=1

[Hellsinkey]

Tom Morello admitted that the main riff to Audioslave’s Cochise is lifted from Pantera’s I’m Broken.

Chris Cornell sings the melody of Whole Lotta Love on verses too.

[DangerZone]

Paul also admitted Hotter than Hell is All Right Now

Yep, I forgot about that. Makes HTH a twofer.

Gene claims Deuce was the stones’ ‘bitch,’ and ‘going blind’ was ‘layla’

[Kings1967]

Tom Morello admitted that the main riff to Audioslave’s Cochise is lifted from Pantera’s I’m Broken.

I'm Broken's riff is lifted from Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean"

Cochise is a 3rd gen version of "The Ocean"

[Love_Industry]

Not sure if they ever admitted it, but Crue's "Looks that Kill" is a blatant copy of Priest's "You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise"

And Knock em Dead Kid is Grinder.

And Dr. Feelgood is AC/DCs "Night of the Long Knives".

It's close but Nikki claims the riff started as a rip from a Killing Joke tune. Love Like Blood or something.

[SterileEyes1]

Tom Morello admitted that the main riff to Audioslave’s Cochise is lifted from Pantera’s I’m Broken.

Chris Cornell sings the melody of Whole Lotta Love on verses too.

I'm Broken's riff is lifted from Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean"

Cochise is a 3rd gen version of "The Ocean"

Wanted to give an enthusiastic “get the fuck out of here” response to both of these, there’s something to be said for ‘all blues-based rock riffs sound the same after awhile’, but I have to admit they are both not entirely inaccurate!

[DonJuanDeMarco]

I still remember that video clip of Vanilla Ice insisting he did not rip off Queen! You gotta be kidding me...

Still, it did the trick. He had a huge hit.

Tone Loc WIld Thing had that Van Halen Jamie's Cryin guitar riff but that's not really ripping off...that's sampling.

That's my contribution anyway!

Oh...and Roxx Gang Stone Dead Drunk Again sounds just like Faster Pussycat Slip of the Tongue!

[aznsquirt]

I'm Broken's riff is lifted from Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean"

Cochise is a 3rd gen version of "The Ocean"

Wanted to give an enthusiastic “get the fuck out of here” response to both of these, there’s something to be said for ‘all blues-based rock riffs sound the same after awhile’, but I have to admit they are both not entirely inaccurate!
[/quote]

Sure, but this thread is about times when bands admitted a certain song/riff was copied from somewhere else, not just a list of things that sound like other things.

Anyway, according to Phil the breakdown riff in Pantera - Domination was intentionally patterned after the breakdown riff in Raining Blood.

It's probably not a coincidence that Pantera started playing Domination right after they had that short stint with Kerry King jamming with them, haha.

[Charles Bukaki]

Tom Morello admitted that the main riff to Audioslave’s Cochise is lifted from Pantera’s I’m Broken.

Offspring’s Why Don’t You Get A Job bites Ob La Di, O Bla Da blatantly enough to where I’d be amazed if they didn’t admit it right out of the gate but I don’t have a quote or anything.

As far as people ripping off Tom Petty, I’ve always been amused that with RHCP and Dani California, he basically said “ah whatever, these things happen” (Rick Rubin connection maybe?) but when it was Sam Smith he’s just like “I’m suing this motherfucker”

Personally speaking I can’t even keep track of how many times I’ve written/recorded something and then some time later, sometimes even years later, “Oh shit, that’s totally ____ this song.” Guessing every songwriter here has had similar experiences.

The Petty/Sam Smith issue came about because Jeff Lynn had a songwriting credit on I Won't Back Down, and it never got as far as a lawsuit. Petty's people approached Sam Smith's people and they quickly came to an agreement where Petty and Lynne would get a 12.5% songwriting credit. I don't think Petty has ever gone after anyone when he was the sole songwriter, he even talked about it in a couple interviews I read where he was generally more flattered than offended.

[dmbrocker]

And Knock em Dead Kid is Grinder.

And Dr. Feelgood is AC/DCs "Night of the Long Knives".

It's close but Nikki claims the riff started as a rip from a Killing Joke tune. Love Like Blood or something.

Yep, just listened to the first bit of it. It does sound very similar:

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

[Einstein Lawless]

Has Linda Perry ever admitted that “What’s Up” is a blatant lift of “I’d Love You to Want Me”?

I honestly thought Lobo was dead for years cuz he never sued her.

[VinnieVincentsVag]

Buck Cherry - Lit Up
KISS/Ace - Shock Me

[Mister Freeze]

U2 are openly admitting their new song "Atomic City" (which is growing on me) borrows from Blondie's "Call Me" in the chorus and proactively gave them a share of the songwriting.

I think it's a stretch, but it also plays into the marketing of the song. U2 loves talking about influences.

Side note: Justin Hawkins did an interesting job breaking down the song on his podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIf29CnxZcE

[Bono Nettencourt]

Has Linda Perry ever admitted that “What’s Up” is a blatant lift of “I’d Love You to Want Me”?

I honestly thought Lobo was dead for years cuz he never sued her.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/df81feda-f ... cceadbf045

[gtrjay]

Tesla ripped off themselves from Song & Emotion to Mamas Fool.

[Tommy]

Papa Roach Last Resort is Brain Stew by Green Day.

[daveg]

Tesla ripped off themselves from Song & Emotion to Mamas Fool.

So did Van Halen. Source of Infection is a complete rip off of Hot for Teacher...but that is not the point of this thread