When I first heard X I thought it was Y
There's a HORA that the first time Roger McGuinn heard Tom Petty's American Girl, he exclaimed "I don't remember writing that!"
There's always talk about who sounds like whom, influences worn heavily or lightly, and so on. What I've been thinking about goes beyond that. An example: the first time I heard Tracy Chapman's first single, Fast Car, I didn't think it SOUNDED like Joan Armatrading; I thought it WAS Joan Armatrading.
Similarly with Athlete: I thought it was Coldplay, albeit sounding even more downcast than usual.
I'm slightly embarrassed to confess that the first time I heard Careless Whisper, listening to Radio 1 with very dodgy reception in the south of France, I believed I was hearing the new single by...Sade.
Anyone else been thus blindsided?
Oh, incidentally, I'm bemused that when reading about Duffy, I find she's constantly compared to Dusty Springfield and, occasionally, Lulu and Helen Shapiro, when I haven't seen anyone make the, to me at least, deafeningly obvious connection - PP Arnold. Is it because she isn't well-known enough, or is it just me who finds such a striking similarity in timbre and phrasing?
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The Jets
The Jets album, which I quite like actually, is a veritable compendium of soundalikes - you get The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Yardbirds, Led Zep, AC/DC, The Faces, and a spot of Oasis - all on one CD! Bargain!
As put to Neil Young....
......by young Andy Kershaw, "who does that sound like?", when playing him some early Green on Red.
Idlewild are the spit of REM, early period. The former supported the latter in Manchester a year or 2 back, but missed Idlewild due to traffic, but always wondered if you could see/hear the join.
I always embarrassed myself by rejoicing when Back of my Hand by the Jags came on the radio or whatever, thinking it was Elvis Costello.
Horse With No Name
Once, in a pub, I nearly put money on this being Neil Young. Luckily, we were all drunk and no one remembered. Although my equally drunk friend insisted that it was a band called America. Yeah, right.
guilty also
on that count...
A Million Love Songs Later...
..."there's a return to form by Alison Moyet" I thought as I strode through the warehouse with the radio on in the background.
Duffy
Duffy is a Carmel McCourt soundalike for me and that's who I thought it was first time around.
Robert Palmer
I once fooled a well refreshed friend of mine - another Little Feat fan - that "Sneakin Sally Through the Alley" by Robert Palmer was actually the Feat - a bit unfair as they are backing RP on it and do some Feat numbers. Oh how we laughed.
The Rock 'n' Roll doctor's advice
is always use the Feat rhythm section if you want that tripe face boogie to swing.
God I love the Feat, especially from when Lowell was alive; time for a Word Magazine MAJOR RETROSPECTIVE, dontcha think?
Are you reading this Messrs Ellen & Hepworth?
Definitely agree...
...on 'Horse With No Name' and CSNY- that's who I thought it was by for years!
I was something like 7 or 8 years old listening to the radio and these piano chords kicked in, and I expected John Lennon's 'Imagine' to start. What I got was Oasis' 'Don't Look Back In Anger'...
When I first heard X...
..I thought they were The Smithereens...
Smithereens
I've always loved that Smithereens song but had never seen the band before. That's a man who needs a hat.
Other confusions
Not strictly what we're talking about, but what the hell:
My brother said he once thought that Townes Van Zandt must be the name of a band Steve Van Zandt started with a guy called somebody Townes.
I was talking to my daughter about Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, and she not unreasonably assumed that the two combined were something to do with The Pet Shop Boys.
Cat Power
Emily Jane White sounds uncannily like Cat Power. I thought it was Cat Power I was listening to when I was played the album.
STP
When I heard an early World Party single, "Private Revolution", years ago, I thought it was a tasty Jagger solo effort.
and, yes, that is Sinead O'Connor acting the goat in the background
The first time I heard...
...The Beep Beep Song by Simone White (on the TV advertisement for the Audi R8) I was convinced that it was a Regina Spektor song. It's a transparently calculated attempt at copying her lyrical style and vocal mannerisms.
I don't like either but...
I always got Crash Test Dummies confused with Counting Crows
But this is someone who for years, couldn't tell his John Mayall from his Long John Baldry
In 1994
When I first heard Sheryl Crow on the radio singing All I Wanna Do, I guessed that it was Patti Smith. This hinges on the fact that, at that time, I had never heard anything by Patti Smith and I was wondering if that was what she might sound like.
And while there was never any confusion as to who sang it, I'd just like to put in a nomination for REM's At My Most Beautiful as the best aural tribute to Pet Sounds that I've ever heard.
Try this one...
Listen to 'I Shall Overcome' from the latest Hard-Fi album.
Now tell me that's not Robbie Williams you're hearing.
Kings of Leon
"Oh, I thought I'd lost that Tom Petty album..."
Van Morrison ... ?
I heard this on the radio wen it was released and was convinced it was Van Morrison. Close your eyes and tell me this isn't something that dropped off 'No Guru, No Method, No Teachers'. Come to think of it Van could do worse than draft these guys in to pep up his recent output. Stand up The Black Sorrows.