I was just listening to Hotel Yorba by The White Stripes and got to thinking about this type of thing. You know - songs by bands you like or even dislike that sound like they had to be written by someone else. I like The White Stripes, as it so happens, and I'm aware of their enjoyment of oldies rock 'n' roll and country. I like their Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield covers. But Hotel Yorba *really* feels like an old song - like it was written by some old-timey cowpoke in the 50s. I had myself completely convinced til I checked Wikipedia and was proven wrong.

Another great example is I Was Made For You by She & Him. Yeah, all their stuff is retro-minded hipsterized jangle pop. But, yet again, it feels like a cover song. It really sounds like it came straight out of the 60s. It's like something the Go-Go's might have done. Listen to those doo-wop style backing vocals - 'dum da da dee da' - when do you ever hear that nowadays, retro-minded or otherwise?

So, yeah. The point is here is not to talk about songs that sound out of place in a discography or too good for a certain band. Tell us some songs that, when you hear them, could swear must be covers but turned out to be originals.

Grave Digger - Silent Revolution


It sounds more like a 80's hard rock cover rather tan a GD song.

Might sound wired ....... Lady Gaga - Alejandro, to me sounded like a lost song by Abba or Ace of Base.

last kiss , thought it was by pearl jam

Edge of Sanity's Sacrificed. EoS did one Sisters of Mercy worship song and then didn't really revisit the sound again aside from a few parts of Crimson.

When I first heard And Then There Were None from the re-recorded Bonded By Blood, I thought it was a shitty metalcore cover of Exodus.

I thought the same thing - there are a couple lines in that song that sound almost EXACTLY like an Ace of Base song. The name of the song eludes me but the resemblance is unmistakable, for a second I thought she was performing a cover.

There are TONS of artists that steal things. See Jeniffer Lopez how she stole the verse melodies of 'Lambada' for his song 'on the floor' (or something like that). His song sounds more like a remix than a whole new creation.

And you have Opeth stealing Camel material. All the time.

Arch Enemy and Blood Red Throne borrow/pay tribute to riffs all the time. It's not exactly an entire song that sounds like a cover, but it's relevant enough.

I think the original post intended to say that the feeling you have when hearing a song and thinking its a cover but it isnt, and its not that the artist stole 76% of some lost song and made it theirs.

I think some artists just able to copy the vibe and sound of a certain band which reminds you of them and you assume its a cover because it reminded you of them, but in reality it isnt.

It was wasn't it? Just happened that the covering band was Exodus.

Hollenthon - Misterium Babel is totally a Dead Can Dance cover. Except that it isn't.

Great song, though. Actually, that whole album is pretty fucking cool. I think a lot of you are missing the point of the thread.. It's not about songs that ARE covers, it's about songs that are actually written by the band in question that sound like they were written by a separate entity.

I thought that Nile's "Lashed to the Slave Stick" was some kind of cover. It didn't feel it fit with the rest of the album or Nile's general style.

Turns out I was half right, the chorus is a cover of the OST of Creepshow 2.

I remember about 9-10 years ago, I was downloading music, and looked for "Dawn of Eternity" by Massacre. I searched for the title, and a song of the same name by a band called Sculpture came up. I figured it was a Massacre cover and downloaded it. It's not even close to a cover. It's cool though. I later heard the rest of that album. It's awful.

I grew up listening to Ace of Base (thanks a lot, dad), and the first time I heard my roommate playing that song, I flat-out asked her why she was suddenly listening to Ace of Base. There is no way that similarity is coincidental.

In an effort to reclaim some level of metal cred after that story, Nocturnal Breed's Iron Bitch goes a step further in straight-up sounding like Motorhead. Not just a cover, but S.A. Destroyer's voice is almost a dead-ringer's for Lemmy on that song. I've actually had to submit MA reports correcting it, because someone out there thought it was a cover.

I'd also like to submit Overkill's Old School for your consideration. I can't tell you what old punk band it sounds like, but it definitely fooled me into thinking it was a cover until I saw the album notes.

Funny thing though (I know, off topic) is that 'Lambada' is a cover of / "steal from" a tune in yet another different style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zemmrDEUZEE

There's been a few Arch Enemy songs on Headbangers Ball that don't show the band in the video and it always gets me excited because the riffs sound like Carcass and the vocals are so low you can't really hear them but I guess that's what happens when you have Michael Amott in your band.

Wow. This one just shocked me big-time. I've been certain for many, many years (and have referred to it many times) as a cover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM

So strange. I mean, I like the band and think they're smart songwriters, but damn. The Middle is just something else. Always thought it must have been a radio-friendly take on some oldschool punk song from the early 90s (when, incidentally, they themselves were playing punk). Crazy.

There were bands around that time ended up having such huge hits that seemed like a step away from their normal formula. To me, that song was one of them, since Clarity before it felt like a different breed. All in all, Bleed American has got to be their strangest album (to me) in terms of conflictions, but somehow it works.

I had no idea this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZTvssDAIEs

was a cover of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-u3oNk49W0

for a long time

oh but aren't, well there's my, but were exception

Therion - Enter the Voids

When I first heard Kimbra's "Cameo Lover" I thought it was a cover of some upbeat 60's Motown meets Twiggy tune. It's an original, but the chorus rings very familiar for some reason, like I've heard it numerous times before.

There is one SYL song that isn't Room 429 that I thought was a Cop Shoot Cop cover over the first track off of White Noise

Ya know what? Been ages since I heard them but Hollenthon seem to have a habit of this kinda thing. When they're not simply covering relatively obscure songs (i.e. The Bazaar, which is obscure outside Canada at least), they're borrowing/modifying other bands' personality and/or riffage.

For example: On the Wings of a Dove

Not a solitary black metal soul on here will deny that they ripped that tune right the fuck off from this classic Samael track.

They 'borrowed' an old prog rock tune at one point too. That 'Son of Perdition' song is just chugging with a poppy chorus. Same for 'Once We Were Kings'. All with very bombastic orchestration and clean production. Is this band meant to be the symphonic death metal equivalent of modern Dimmu Borgir?