I just thought about this thread by listening to Baccara's "Yes Sir I Can Boogie" which, to my ears, it's "Don't Leave Me This Way" (by Thelma Houston) with different lyrics. Any other songs you remember that fit in this category?
The Kinks ----You Really Got Me The Kinks ----All Day And All Of The Night The Doors ----Hello I Love You
"All Day and All of the Night" and "Hello, I Love You" is a classic example. "Daisy Jane" by America and "Let's Wait Awhile" by Janet Jackson. More recently: "Cowgirl in the Sand" by Neil Young and "Californication" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. My favorite: "Hang On Sloopy" and "Fever" by the McCoys. Both songs start with the exact same drum rhythm and have the same first two notes on the guitar. Utterly indistinguishable from one another until the first minor chord of "Fever."
"Wild Wild West" - Escape Club. The melody of the verses is identical to the melody of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up". "Wild Wild West" - Will Smith. The chorus that the female voice sings is identical to the chorus on Stevie Wonder's "I Wish". "Cover Girl" - New Kids On The Block. The melody of the verses is identical to the melody of the Music Explosion's "Little Bit O' Soul". "Greatest Love Of All" - Whitney Houston. The bridge is identical to Gordon Lightfoot's bridge in "If You Could Read My Mind". Other parts of the song are very similar to Boz Scagg's "We're All Alone".
How 'bout "Werewolves Of London" by Warren Zevon (R.I.P.) - the chord structure (and, for that matter, key of D major) are too similar for comfort to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."
Phil Collins - "In the Air Tonight" Genesis - "Man on the Corner" Phil Collins - "I Missed Again" Genesis - "No Reply At All" (Back when I first heard them on radio I thought these were the same song!)
How about George Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone". It's basically a rewrite of "I'm A Man" by Bo Diddley.
How about "So Fine" by The Fiestas mating with "Searchin'" by The Coasters, having different lyrics added and (IMO) ending up as "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys?
I've always thought the first few bars of "Take It To The Limit" by the Eagles are very similar to the first few bars of "If You Don't Know Me By Now" by Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes.
I always thought the melody of the verse of Hall & Oates "Family Man" was a blatant rip-off of The Hollies' "Bus Stop." IMO.
I just remembered another one. The melody of Leo Sayer's hit "When I Need You" is identical to "Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat". Cohen should have received royalties for that one!
"Bad Moon Rising" - CCR "Cross Tie Walker" - CCR A cheap shot, maybe, but they may as well be the same song.
Yes to #2 and #3, nonsense to #1 and #2. First two chords of the riff are the same, and little else. About a hundred times more energy in #2 than #1...a much better guitar solo...much better drums (and actually played by a member of the band!). Don't get me wrong...I like "You Really Got Me." It's just always bugged me that it gets all the ink, when "All Day and All of the Night" is clearly the superior song in every way.
Though the songs themselves are dissimilar in chord patterns and structure, the cop of the distinctive alternating root-fifth bass part of "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)" by The Hollies themselves for the subsequent "Courage of Your Convictions" and "The Day That Curly Billy Shot Crazy Sam McGhee" is just too blatant to ignore.
Mariah Carey's "Emotion" sounds like Cheryl Lynn's "Got To Be Real" AND "Best Of My Love" by the Emotions. Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" is very close to "Jamie's Crying" by Van Halen. "Isn't It Time" by the Babys sound a bit too much like "Feels Like The First Time" by Foreigner.
It was very common in the earlier days of the Top 40 for an artist or group to put out a very similar-sounding song once they'd scored a big hit. This only rarely worked. Among the more obvious examples of it failing: Just Like Romeo and Juliet/Like Columbus Did -- The Reflections Sweet Talkin' Guy/Out of This World -- The Chiffons Vehicle/Superman -- The Ides of March Many others, I'm sure...