More Than Teen Spirit: Songs That Sound Remarkably Like Other Songs

In rough order of originals, with ripoffs following. Okay, you can try to score a hit record by creating a wholly original sound. Hope you don't mind washing dishes for a few years. It's a lot easier to grab an audience by imitating something that they already like, then trying to innovate. Bob Dylan was a Woody Guthrie imitator before he found his own voice, Wilson Pickett scored the money for that Mustang, Sally, by being Atlantic's answer to James Brown, it's a cinch that four or five of your favorite punk-poppers started as Green Day tribute bands. Some of these semi-intentional homages have been the subject of famous litigation, like "My Sweet Lord" and "Ghostubsters." Some are just tolerated as sincere forms of flattery.