I want to apologize that I put the wrong clip of Truckin in the video by The Dead. It’s the verses. Should’ve been a clip of one of the verses. “Truckin' - Got My Chips Cashed In Keep Truckin' - Like The Doodah Man”

I am 70 I have been a musician since I was 10. I do not believe that I have ever heard a song that did not remind me of another. We only have so many notes and we have to share. Cheers from Canada. ~ulrich

I still remember "The Flipper Case" to this day. Sends shivers down my spine. Turns out the tune was dolphin free in the end.

Back when I was in college I wrote a solo flute piece for a composition class. I got an "A" and the piece was then performed in a student recital. Years later I heard the opening theme of my piece performed on a local radio station! I suddenly realized that what I was hearing was by Claude Debussy. Musicians store thousands of tunes in the back of their minds, and it's easy to unconsciously replicate the work of others.... By the way, I like your singing!

Ringo had his fellow Beatles in stitches, as he several times played them something he thought he had composed, only for them to tell him he had re-created an existing song.

"Creep (Radiohead)" and "The Air that I Breathe (the Hollies)" was a no-brainer. Regardless, I love them both!

Conversely, when McCartney wrote Yesterday and Let It Be, he was convinced he had heard them before and that they were not originally his. He said he asked around if the sounded familiar but everybody said they were his so he put them out.

i love your voice so much, it doesn't matter if you're singing or just talking. You should make a sort of story telling kind of thing or sing, sing, sing!

Knowing that both Fagen and Becker were huge jazz fans, and no doubt had heard Horace Silver's 1965 "Song for My Father" album years before they wrote "Ricky" (in '74), I prefer to think it's a tribute to Silver.

"My Sweet Lord" also had the "I really want to show you" melody which was also in the other song.

Great video! and check out Hotel California up against Jethro Tull’s “We used to know”. The Eagles used to open for JT, so it certainly is curious.

Things I liked about this video was listening to all these great songs, and hearing Aimee sing.👌🏼

You have a beautiful voice. Your pitch is amazing.

Your channel came up in my algorithms today and I clicked it. I play rhythm and lead guitar, bass and drums and I love free styling to songs and I love the knowledge that you have which I am influenced by. I just subscribed to your channel and you and David Bennett Piano are my favorite subs!

Once I wrote a song that I absolutely loved. I love the chord progression. I love the melody. I was thrilled with the lyrics, so I recorded it quickly and then headed out to meet friends. Later, in my car, a song by Tonic was playing. That song was mountain, and that song was exactly the song that I had written, just listen to that. I scrapped everything but the lyrics but I totally see how accidental Sons theft happens

Should do a full-blown studio-quality cover of "We've Got Tonight". The informal snippet that she did was very nice with its quiet, reflective delivery.

" The Ballad of John and Yoko" is also similar to " Stuck in the middle with you "

What a beautyfull voice you have, everybody needs to hear you singing, you are amazing. God bless your talent

So at a bluegrass jam noodling around on songs in the key of D. I flipped the chord progression backwards, started cross picking the chord triads, and “came up with” The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness. Too bad John Prine already had it covered. But I was feeling pretty good there for a couple of hours.

The Dead played “Rain” “blackbird” “day tripper” “dear prudence” “LSDiamonds” “revolution” “that would be something” “tomorrow never knows” in the live shows. Not very many times but they were fans. They were fans of Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, J Cash, George Jones, Merle Haggard and a ton of other great artists.

You have a lovely voice, Aimee, in speaking as well as singing. Interesting content as well, thanks.

You could easily interpret Jacob's song as a deliberate inversion of Seger's song; Seger mentions ity being late, Jacob says its early; Seger's line is descending, Jacob's is ascending. Actually seems like a reference to me.

What is so funny to me is that I was familiar with "He's So Fine" and listened to "My Sweet Lord" numerous times and never made a connection how similar they were. Maybe I was just too awestruck with that fascinating slide guitar part.

Well done. iN the endless channels of every stripe, You have managed to distinguish yourself by being Good at what you do! i Love your Voice! Thank you for your efforts.

Rod Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” is based on a recording named “Taj Mahal” by Brazilian artist Jorge Ben. It was Ben’s biggest hit. Stewart says it was “unconscious plagiarism.”

Awesome vid Aimee! Too many thoughts... but one point I appreciate is that it IS possible that 2 ppl compose very similar things w/o knowledge of the other, especiallt when talking about simple melodies with common song structure. I have done it!

Liked and subscribed! Great comparisons, fun presentation. And you play and sing beautifully.

First time I've seen one of your videos, Aimee, very informative, good playing and singing.👍👏❤️

Thanks Aimee, very interesting. My wife and I try to guess instrumental songs and we ofter try to make the case of similarities to other songs. Nice singing and playing the comparisons!

Wow-you have a really beautiful voice! 🎶 ❤

I love these expositions. Very enlightening and drawn from such an encyclopaedic knowledge of songs. As a songwriter, I'm always terrified of making something too similar to something else, while trying to consciously capture the feel, mood and groove of songs that I like. It's a hire-wire act and your insights provide some really useful guidelines. Thank you.

Well researched. Thank you for educating us. 🎉

In 1998 I was in a band. One day when I woke up, I had this idea for a guitar piece and it got me started on writing what could've been a new song. However, it wasn't very long after this (a number of weeks) when I heard the intro to "Smooth" by Santana & Rob Thomas, which sounded very, very similar to what I woke up with in my head earlier. As you'd expect, I found it hard to listen to that song for a while because I felt almost ripped off, even though I hadn't actually recorded, or even finished writing my song yet. I'm over it now, but back then it was frustrating.

The riff from the Beatles Dear prudence is so similar to the Grateful Dead, mind left body jam that it is sometimes mistaken as the outro jam to Garcia’s version of Dear prudence

Saw you in Bismarck Saturday. Good job!

Just watched that "Office" episode.....loved the use of that and enjoyed your presentation!

Well, I'd be surprised if Paul objected to Thomas the Tank Engine theme as Ringo was the original narator for the first British TV series 😅

McCartney showed John Lennon HOW Come together needed to be changed or it would have been almost exactly like a Chuck Berry tune, think is was YOU Cant catch me. The HERE come FLAT TOP, line. But the way LENNON originally presented it PAUL picked up on it.

Aimee you explained this issue well. In a very kindly voice. Thank you!! I will check out your course!

Thank you for your video. Love and best wishes from Perth, Australia!

Ricky Don't Lose That Number is a completely different idea than Song for My Father. I often use chord changes from published songs but with a completely different idea and feel. No one owns chord changes. If they did, we'd have a legal mess on our hands and we'd be deprived of a lot of cool songs.

Your singing on that bit of Girl From Ipanema (6:23) is outstanding, btw!

@aimeenoltemusic wonderful deep dive! Thank you. I’m a session bassist and producer in Nashville and us musicians in sessions often talk of this.

Love it Aimee. You have much value to teach. I'd like to hear your history.

I Want a New Drug by Huey Lewis & the News and Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. I like both.

Very interesting and you are an AMAZING singer.

I think your video is really informative. I never thought about this before. Great video. thanks for sharing.

With the constraint of just 88 keys on a piano and adhering to a rigid set of musical conventions, it's highly probable that any new composition may inadvertently echo previous works. This likelihood is compounded by the universal experience of musical influence; it's nearly impossible to craft a completely original song, riff, sequence, or any other component of a piece without being shaped by the music we've encountered throughout our lives. Moreover, when creating within a specific genre or style, the possibility of replicating someone else's melodies or harmonies increases significantly. This phenomenon underscores the challenge of achieving true originality in music, given the finite elements available and our deep-seated exposure to a vast array of musical expressions.

Nothing good's created in a vacuum. Great video, Aimee!

New sub. I love your voice and you are clearly well versed in all matters musical. Here's one of my worst offenders when it comes to plagiarising the Beatles - Offspring's "Why don't you get a job?" I'll let you all work out the source song. How they never got sued is beyond me. Macca must have been busy.

For the record, I think that the Steely Dan lift of that Horace Silver intro was a conscious lift/musical reference. As a Jazz/rock fusion act, recording only a decade or so after Silver's very well-known single, they expected that their audience would recognize their 'quote' of that riff, or will at least recognize it retro-actively upon hearing the Horace Silver track. It's a tricky concept/differentiation, but worth noting. I do think that Harrison was consciously playing off of "Oh Happy Day", especially since "My Sweet Lord" is essentially a hymn and was written when "Oh Happy Day" was a BIG hit; but I also think that the Chiffons song played into things, too, if only because its structure is also based on the same musical tropes in "Oh Happy Day". MANY times a Jazz musician will be in the middle of a solo and realize that they're veering close to similar song, and then 'quote' that other song for a bar or two.

I ususlly watch youtube at a higher speed except for music themed videos for obvious reason. This time I left it on 1.5 speed. Loved this video. The subject matter with very good examples excellently wrapped up the meaning and nuances of copyright infringement. AND Aimee, your facial expressions are so expessive and priceless.

Speaking of the musical ether, a couple years ago I heard a new release from a new artist on the radio that had the same topic, similar lyrics, and similar melodic phrases of a song I wrote long long ago but never played for anyone. It was eerie to listen to. All I can say is that all the music we make is influenced by the music we listen to. It's just more obvious in some songs than others.

After the "My Sweet Lord" musical copy of "He's So Fine," I think the most striking was Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" getting copied by The Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A." Was that an acknowledged copy? Even sanctioned by Berry? Because I recall DJ's pointing out the similarity when they played Surfin' USA in the 60's, yet I don't recall any lawsuits or challenges lodged at the time. (Were there?) And, hey, thanks for covering this; I too have noted, if only mentally, when one song sounds too similar to another to be mere coincidence. Fred

I love your voice and singing. It was interesting to hear how you sang when you were young. I think that there is an important lesson here about the relationship between learning and whether people are just "born with the gift."

How about Journey - I'm Gonna Leave You and Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son. Also Steve Miller Band - The Stake and Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way. And that progression in the Steely Dan Song is also in The Soft Parade by The Doors.

First time here. I just found your channel. You have a beautiful singing voice as well as what one might say is radio voice. Thanks for pointing out all of these "ripoffs."

I've routinely told my composition students to rip an exact progression from another song and write their own song from it. It's definitely a great exercise in arranging if you can 'steal' someone's progression and make a song that sounds entirely different. One of my sayings is that 'you can't copyright a chord progression.' Of course, when it comes down to writing the same chords AND melody, that's where the questions begin to happen. But the whole case of Led Zepplin being sued for Stairway to Heaven's chord progression is a good example of my point. If the band Spirit can sue Zepplin for that progression, then McCartney could have sued Spirit for stealing the same progression in 'Michelle' who in turn could have been sued by the Rogers & Hart estate for 'My Funny Valentine.' And on and on and on. But in George's case, not just the chord movement but the melody was the same. That said, it's really obvious this was from unconscious influence. Hell, the entire history of composition is based on one composer stealing from another one. PS: I don't know how many people got it but the end of your video was hilarious!

That was great!👏🏻

Great topic, Aimee!

8:44 -- When Billy Joel first wrote "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" he had to change the beginning melody because it sounded exactly like "Laughter in the Rain" by Neil Sedaka. Luckily, he first ran it by his drummer, Liberty DeVitto, who pointed out the resemblance.

My personal favorite example of subconscious 'theft' of a musical idea is the song Afterglow by Genesis - Tony Banks described the horror he felt listening to it again after the album came out and realizing he had accidentally rewritten the melody for 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' for the verse 😂 I liked also the point about artists plagiarizing themselves, a songwriter I love who does that a TON is Ray Davies, there's loads of examples of it in the Kinks catalog but my favorite has to be Lavender Lane which sounds nearly identical to Waterloo Sunset. With a musical idea that good I don't blame him!

I was so psyched when you also noticed the Collier/Segar thing.

That was a real good video I enjoyed it thoroughly I do recall a verse in the Bible that says there is nothing new Under the Sun😊

I write stuff all the time that I feel like I have heard before....but I figured if I get sued that probably means I have attained some moderate amount of success..

Well researched!! James

Very interesting video! I have also heard several songs that sound quite similar, and I wonder how many of the artists intentionally stole these songs without permission or just happened to stumble across the same basic melodies and/or structures. You explained this whole issue very well, by the way! Good job!

Best video ever. Often times, the problem stems from people honestly forgetting that they remembered someone else's song.

Well said Aimee. Some people get too hung up with this copyright stuff. Many songs have similars chords, melodies, etc. 🎹 👍

Excellent episode!

A brilliant borrow was the melodic leaps in Lennon’s “ Just Like Starting Over” and Brian Wilson’s “Don’t Worry Baby”. Both are brilliant melodies.

Damn, your voice is so incredibly beautiful. Subscribing

I think the problem is that the simpler the music is, the more powerful it is. So all this concern with originality is just leading to complicating our music and leaving us all with a bunch of weak-ass new songs so everybody will just continue listening to the old songs because those are the only good ones that are allowed.

Speaking of P. Collins, another good example is the chorus of "I wish it would rain down". It's MORE than similar to " Wish you were here", by Waters-Gilmour (Pink Floyd).

You have a lovely voice and are a smart gjrl. My dad was a jazz guitarist and would have found your channel interesting. I do.

There’s no way every single “theft” is actually theft. An artist can’t possibly know every single song ever. I’ve tried writing something before only to hear something very similar sometime later. It happens

George later discovered that he owned the catalogue containing He's so fine and he'd been suing himself for all those years!

Fascinating episode! I thought you were going to use here comes sunshine by the dead in relation to good day sunshine by the beatles. also so much cross pollination happened in the sixties between the brits and the laurel canyon scene. I love the story of how the beach boys and the beatles were in awe of each other and how pet sounds dropped before sgt pepper, but was heavily inspired by brian wilsons arrangements, yet probably more people know about pepper than pet sounds. I digress, but your platform opens a ton of dialogue about rock provenance, so thank you and you have a great voice and musicianship in general, so keep that up.

People don't always subconsciously lift music they've heard, but have just stumbled onto the same musical device because, as they say, great minds think alike. Paul Stookey, when he'd written "There is love" or the Wedding song, gave any royalties to one of his charities because he believed it was not made by him, but " discovered by him. I have the same problem. Many years ago in the early eighties, I developed two separate chord sequences that I used to jam on and forgot until recently. Then when rediscovering them, I found that together they formed almost the same idea as Cheryl Crowe's " all I want to do", and part of an instrumental I developed and played in bar bands in the seventies had a turn around section at the end of a section that was the same as McCartney and Elvis Costello's " My brave face. I'm nit saying I'm anywhere on their level, but I can't have heard these tunes because they were not realeased til 10 years after I'd " written " them! My problem is that someone like you might notice the similarities and think I'd either deliberately or accidentally copied them, but my ideas were never released to the public anyway, so no-one will believe they're original if I ever do release them, like the other bit I still have ( no lyrics yet) which sounds suspiciously like the chorus in McCartney's "Peace in the neighbourhood". I'm just a nobody, but was obviously digging around the same bits of rock in the ground( primary source) or as you said, in the ether, but more organised and proffessional types will always be better miners, and mire efficient, quickly getting their sounds out to the public. When you are searching your internal musical neighbourhoods ( no pun) of course there will be times when many people will find themselves walking the familiar streets of certain musical patterns or motifs... it's not surprising people of basic musical intelligence will end up with the same architecture, as you point out, much of the time it is the only Taxi route you can take through that locality because of the limit of units of phrase in any genre, so even in George Harrisons case, I think it's a bit rich to claim that the idea was yours when he probably arrived at the same conclusions while doing essentially a gospel/soul type progression There are so many popular progressions that are commonly used, it's like suing someone for plagarism because they expressed the same opinion in print without using a single original word which they made up... they just spoke English, whether or not it could be woke enough to call it cultural appropriation for Elton John to sing with a south western vowel sound in a country ballad because he's british?!!! There is nothing new under the sun Tom Petty's " here comes my girl" or Ban Mirrison with them singing " Here comes the night" Who cares except for ignorant, frivolously litigious Canadians, US citizens, and English-speaking Mexican and cenntral americans?

Honey, you might not know it, but you have a great talent, your facial expressions could rival the great Bette Davis. Those slight nuances show great emotions. Not to late to become a famous actress. You got plenty chops musical and others. Thanks for being you.

Great post. As a Bassist composer I hear this stuff all the time. It’s funny you mention the Dead and Seager. What has jumped out recently Is Seegers -Down On Main Street And The Dead’s- Looks Like Rain. Check it out, you can have fun with these 2 classics.

I enjoyed this video. I, too, often think about songs that sound like other songs and the fine line between stealing and borrowing. My interest stems from my penchant for parody. Your video reminded me of the Rutles project, in which Eric Idle and Neil Innes created a couple of albums worth of "Beatles songs" that weren't Beatles songs, for the sake of parody,. Songs like "Ouch!" and "Hold My Hand" had just enough difference from the targeted songs to make them unique. And the real Beatles, who all had a good sense of humor, appreciated them. Another thing I thought of, on the legal front, was the case of The Hollies' "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress", over which John Fogerty successfully sued despite the lack of melodic similarity to any specific CCR song, but merely because it had a CCR "sound."

Van Halen: Top of the world Toto: Afraid of Love CCR: Hey Tonight

I really enjoyed this!

I remember when I dreamed of a beautiful romantic piano piece, woke up, and immediately sat down at the piano to work out what I'd been hearing. Guess what: I'd subconsciously transposed bits of two actual Chopin preludes to the same key (different from both), and stitched it together. (I have absolute pitch, so they really DID sound different.) Wonder to how many other people similar things happened...

This has to be the most insightful overview of this one subject I have ever seen... and heard. i have always thought this way about all the particulars you mentioned but you put it into words and notes perfectly. BTW, also love the way you wrinkle your nose sometimes. Not exactly on subject I know but I just had to mention that.

To be honest, I think of all the tuneful ways that the 15 of an octave can be arranged, not to mention the discordant ways, and I realise that we shall always find similarities between different songs, whether intentionally or not. My own favourite comparison would be the Eagles' Hotel California and Jethro Tull's We Used to Know. Different keys, yes, and the Eagles embellished the song somewhat more than Tull did but Ian Anderson never made a big deal of it because he viewed it as inevitable that something like this could happen. In all, I think that this is one part of the reason why popular music these days spends so much time trying to recreate itself (or, if you must, pop will eat itself!) Trying to come up with something that is truly original in music is so difficult that some people pick the easy way out, whether it is by recreating the sound of a particular bygone era (I've lived through two different versions of Mods, Romantics and so forth, not to mention wholesale recreations of particular decades) or they prolong a particular style, in some cases for far too long (easy listening and rap are certainly a couple of good examples there). Indeed I see the musical landscape now to be very similar to that of the period immediately before the birth of rock and roll in the early 1950s or that period between the death of popular rock and roll at the end of the 50s and the start of the British Invasion of the mid 1960s. What do we have now? Rap has been around since the 1980s but the content is bland and repetitive with too many talentless artists boasting about their wealth, their property, their social habits and such, something that was so different in the beginning. Easy listening was mostly boring even back when it was beginning to get long in the tooth at the turn of the century. Boy bands? Nah, boy and girl bands are merely ripoffs of groups that were big several decades ago, with boy bands ripping of the likes of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones and girl bands doing the same but with scantier clothing. Heavy Metal isn't much better having sunk back into the underground from whence it came for good or bad reasons and even my own stomping ground, progressive rock, is hardly what it was as the old guard are dying off and the newer groups are merely pale imitations for the most part. There's nothing really new and the question has to be asked; where is the next actually NEW thing coming from? If it does come, what is next for the plagiarism accusation, copyright lawsuit or out of court settlement? It'll happen just as it always has.

I've always believed there's nothing we haven't heard before. Except for your amazing research, presentation and production... 🎶💯👏

Your Bob Seger example made me think of a French musette style waltz I wrote many years ago. I played it for friends and acquaintances and even in public. Several people said, "Hey, that sounds familiar!" And I would say, "How could it? I just wrote it!" Well! A few years later I put on a CD I hadn’t listened to for a long time, and I heard a fairly well-known song (in that genre). The whole opening theme was almost exactly the same as what I had "composed"! Other sections were different, but the beginning was a copy. For some time, I was at a complete loss for what to do. Then one day I hit on the idea of completely reversing the melody. And it worked!

It's amazing all the cool stuff I've found just by checking anything out that has the Grateful Dead in it.

Aimee you have a beautiful voice....🎤🎙🎤

Most if not all the melody to "Honky Tonk Angels" has been re-used for various tunes for over 130 years, I'm guessing. "Great Speckled Bird" has the most interesting title.

I get this all the time. Glad you were able to put it into words.

thanks for the excellent video on a complicated subject. after 6000 years of recorded history its really hard to come up with a truly original idea. everyone is influenced by someone. and often many people are influenced by the same people. example: i'm a philosopher and political scientist but many of my positions reflect the ideas of the 17th century english philosopher john locke. but i came up with my ideas without ever reading john locke. but i did read thomas jefferson who was influenced by john locke. and probably millions of people had the same ideas as locke before locke who's names and existance have been lost to history. which is one reason i so admire many song writers. after millions of songs being published over the last several centuries to create a totally original song is an almost impossible task. always loved that guitar riff of muddy waters' "manish boy." heard it many times in other songs but his version remains my favorite.

So interesting,by the way you have a beautiful voice 😊

I've been noticing this a lot in the last 20 years at least. Songs that remind me of other songs. The latest song: Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For? I love the song for a lot of reasons but the beginning chord progression reminds me so much of a slow version of Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again.

La Bamba and Twist and Shout; Queen Of Hearts and It's Alright... that's just two. Many of Buddy Holly's songs can be 'mapped' onto another with the potential for (maybe with a bit of transposing) playing a Supermix... I blew my music coaches mind when I smashed "I Wish How I Knew How It Feels To Be Free" and "Amazing Grace" together before their very eyes... Nice video.

Fascinating and I agree with you Totally! Always run an idea passed someone else. But don’t let it stop you writing.nice work Aimee 😅

More Than I Can Say was written before the Police's song Every Breath You take by Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison of the the post Buddy Holly Crickets Band in the early 1960's, and they had their own version before Bobby Vee.

I wouldn't suggest running songs by friends. They may be reminded of another song for reasons other than melody and chord structure. I've found that most non-musicians don't even use terms like "tone" or "pitch" or "volume" correctly, and sometimes use these words interchangeably.