Bon Jovi and the songs they cleverly stole from others.
 

Aloha !

With the arrival of the internet and music being more available it's also got fans from different bands together. I for one am a fan of the Stereophonics, and I've yet only met 1 person who's a fan of both bands. The internet has made it possible for people to read discussions about various artists, look up songs and suddenly people were able to discuss how they heard another song from a totally different genre in the latest Bon Jovi song.

Here's the list of songs of which I am aware have been (partially) ripped off from other songs:

1. Burning For Love: Living A Lie -Laura Branigan (verses)
2. King Of The Mountain: The Stroke - Billy Squier (partially)
3. Never Say Goodbye: Hearts Of Stone - Southside Johnny
4. Love Is War: Nicked from You Give Love A Bad Name.
5. Keep The Faith: Pain Lies On The Riverside - Live
6. Fear: Inspired by We Gotta Get Out Of This Place - The Animals
7. Hearts Breaking Even: Inspired by Cryin' - Aerosmith
8. Damned: Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) - The Rolling Stones (chorus)
9. All I Want Is Everything - Sign O' The Times - Prince (verses)
10. Bitter Wine: Shooting Star - Bad Company
11. Queen Of New Orleans: Tom Petty - Mary Jane's Last Dance
12. Janie, Don't Take Your Love To Town: Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis
13. Naked: Swallowed (Chorus) - Bush
14. It's Just Me: Pink Floyd - Time
15. August 7, 4:15: Rockin' In The Free World - Neil Young
16. I Don't Want To Live Forever: Local Boy In The Photograph - Stereophonics
17. Rich Man Living In A Poor Man's House: Learning To Fly - Tom Petty
18. Say It Isn't So: Semi-Charmed - Life Third Eye Blind
19. Two Story Town: One Of Us - Joan Osbourne
20. Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars: Stay Young - Oasis
21. Thief Of Hearts: I Won't Back Down - Tom Petty
22. Standing: Dig In - Lenny Kravitz
23. Another Reason To Believe: Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) - The Rolling Stones (verses)
24. Why Aren't You Dead: 5:15 - The Who
25. Have A Nice Day: Clavado En Un Bar - Mana
26. Bells Of Freedom: This Ain't A Love Song (chorus only)
27. Who Says You Can't Go Home: Follow You Down - Gin Blossom
28. Last Man Standing: Turn The Page - Bog Seger
29. This Is Our House : Lift U Up - Gotthard
30. We Weren't Born To Follow: Born To Be My Baby (chorus only)
31. Brokenpromiseland: All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan (verses only)
32. Backseat Driver: I Don't Want To Be - Gavin de Graw (chorus only)
33. 7 Years Gone: I Wonder - Gotthard (chorus only)
34. Every Road Leads Home To You: Use Somebody - Kings Of Leon
35. Because We Can: King Of Emotion - Big Country
36. Beautiful World: How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20 (verses)
37. The Fighter - Prendre Un Enfant - Yves Duteil
38. Saturday Night Gave Me Sunday Morning: Gotta Be Somebody - Nickelback

I know with some of them (Two Story Town) it might be co-incidental. With others (Stay Young) it's a direct rip off that makes me wonder why they haven't been sued yet, though I doubt Noel Gallagher has got any right to sue considering how much he nicked from other artists. :)

Then there's the obvious list of songs on which you can sing the chorus to It's My Life to:

1. One Wild Night
2. Undivided
3. Bounce
4. Have A Nice Day
5. Complicated
6. We Got It Goin' On
7. Brokenpromiseland
8. etc.

All songs that fit the chorus completely, it's not just the chord progressions but it's the lenght of every bar as well etc.

I'm quite sure there's more out there. To this day I swear I recognize the riff from Naked, along with the drum loop, from another song but I can't say which one. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Or come up with more examples of songs they stole from others? I'm sure there's more out there of bands I rarely listen to. I'll edit the list once the suggestions start to come. :)

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Good list... the most shameful being Aug 7, 415. Especially after covering RITFW on the previous tour.

My addition is Novocaine inspired by MCR's "I'm Not Okay". HAND was supposedly a power/pop record... And My Chemical Romance, a power/pop/punk band had received some attention a year or so prior... I can see how MCR would have influenced the songwriting.

The two songs have different dynamics and tone and I haven't compared chord progressions, but the melody is very similar.

Aren't "We Weren't Born to Follow" and "Born to Be My Baby" essentially the same song in the Chorus?

I'd also add the Animals "We Gotta Get out of this Place" and "Fear."

There is "Hearts of Stone" and "Never Say Goodbye" too.

I say it every time this topic comes up:
Queen of New Orleans and Tom Petty's Last Dance With Mary Jane.

And Jon playing an IDENTICAL solo on both (probably the only solo he knew back in the day, still). What I find really bad is the topic of August 7, 4:15. I mean, come on, a song about the tragic death of a little girl. At least write your own ****in' melody Jon Bon Bon!

The others I am more or less ok with. Some are quite blatant, but then again, they've always been honest about generally 'being inspired' by other artists. And since JonBon constantly cites people like Tom Petty, SSSJ, Neil Young or the Animals as major influences, it's ok.

I would add two songs to the list:

Temptation - House of the Rising Sun.

And biggest of them all - Last Man Standing is IDENTICAL to Bob Seger's Turn the Page. You can even interchange lyrics. Ridiculous.

I think most of these are coincidental TBH.

Wild is the Wind -The River (the boss)

Janie vs Don't Look Back in Anger?!
Not so sure about that.
Destination Anywhere was in the process of being written in late 95, early 96. Jon's lyrics were stolen in Feb 96 (I asked him if he had got them back when I met him March) so I'm pretty sure he'd have got to work on it before Don't Look Back was released.
However, the Oasis single was released while Jon was in the UK filming the Leading Man, so there's a minute possibility that he picked up on it.

To be honest though, you could look at most music and start saying it sounds like someone else's work.
There's a limit on the number of chords in existence, so eventually over time things will start to replicate a little.

I always thought Born to be my baby sounds exactly like an upbeat version of The River in the chorus.