Musical Acts Whose Biggest Hit is a Cover or is Heavily Sampled from Another Song

I heard that before he gave the credits to Queen and David Bowie, he claimed that the bass line wasn't stolen at all since he added an extra "dun". Going by that logic, if a classmate of mine lets me copy his homework, and that I just changed a few words but copied everything else directly, then it wouldn't be considered as copying anymore. That doesn't sound right... - Misfire

Queen is what he ripped off - XxMontrealxXRBLX

Literally the only song anyone knows by him is his rip-off of Under Pressure. Seriously, has this guy done anything else?

Just A White Rapper From Florida... With A Funny Haircut! - A quote by Queens drummer Roger Taylor

Is this the chocolate rain song dude? - DMZABO

I have no idea who this is. - RobertWisdom

He's a God - 445956

Why he take a selfie underground in DC - Maddox121

I agree with her statement against the Catholic church on SNL. While I do support the church, I don't support the fact that some of its leaders are kiddie diddlers. - Kuro

Cannot stand this women. She is an insult to humanity.

'Nothing Compares 2 U' is probably her biggest thing, with her second biggest being an infamous SNL performance where she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II. But, did you know that it was originally a Prince song? - ReturnOfScorpio

I liked I Wanna Dance with Somebody better than I Will Always Love You though... - iamawesomedog

She did have 10 other #1 pop hits - westofohio

Her version, takes my breath away. Sorry Dolly

Totally forgot about this one! ‘I Will Always Love You’ was originally by Dolly Parton - ReturnOfScorpio

He wrote almost none of his songs

'Hound Dog' is, arguably, his biggest hit. It wasn't written by him, as it originally came out in 1953 and was written by Big Mama Thornton. It’s often because the white elvis’ Version was more popular that some labeled him racist (yeah, seriously…). - ReturnOfScorpio

So who was this nobody? No seriously who is he and what ever did he almost do? - DMZABO

He's known for his cover of Hallelujah, it's a very famous song so he isn't a nobody. - Kuro

Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah' was written and originally recorded by 'Leonard Cohen' in 1984. - ParasN2000

Quiet Riot’s biggest hit was ‘come on Feel the Noise’, a cover of a Slade song of the same name. While their fans may know other good songs of theirs, such as the Wild and the Young from QRIII, many people mostly know them from this slade cover. - ReturnOfScorpio

This one’s actually pretty upsetting. The Verve acquired the right to sample the Andrew Oldham orchestral Version of the Rolling Stones’ song ‘The Last Time’. With this, they made the 90’s anthem ‘Bittersweet Symphony’.
The Verve and the Stones originally agreed on splitting the royalties 50/50, but, following the song’s immense popularity, The Rolling Stones (former business manager Allen Klein in particular) demanded 100% of the royalties, and the song’s credit. They ultimately got that wish.
While the Verve continues to do this song live today, they do not use the iconic strings backing track, and instead opt to give it an original sound.
The most ironic thing of the whole situation was how the writer of the sheet music for the orchestral music, David Whitacre, did not receive any credit whatsoever. - ReturnOfScorpio

Time after time my fave old person

Girls just wanna have fun! And, boy, did Cyndi have a lot of fun raking in the money with this infectious 1970’s punk hit!
Oops, no, she did the 1980s pop anthem. The 1970s punk song was the original writer, Bo Hazard. - ReturnOfScorpio

I like Surfin' USA. - Misfire

cool

They were surfin’ USA, and then the wave carried them into trouble.
Basically, Brian Wilson took instrumental influence from Chuck Berry’s ‘Sweet Little 16’. And by influence, I mean he copied the instrumental outright and called it his own.
Berry’s publisher, of course, sued the band, and got Berry a writer’s credit on the song.
I’m considering this a case of sampling. Deal with it. - ReturnOfScorpio

You know Coldplay has other big hits than viva la Vida - Weirdest-thing

Ripped off Joe Satriani - Silence4101

This one ranks lowest due to a technicality: Viva La Vida neither samples nor is a cover of another song. But, if you ask Joe Satriani, he’d tell you that it was an outright ripoff.
In 2009, he sued the British band for Viva La Vida’s similarities with his 2004 song ‘If I Could Fly’, which are hard to deny upon good examination. - ReturnOfScorpio

I was not aware All Along the Watchtower was a cover. That's cool! - Misfire

He covered a song called All Along the Watchtower, I forget who the original artist of that song is.

It is Bob Dylan.

Coolio's biggest song is 'Gangsta's Paradise' feat. L.V. which quite heavily samples Stevie Wonder's 'Pastime Paradise'. - ParasN2000

His song "Beautiful Girls" sampled Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" - DaWyteNight

"Stronger" sampled "Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk- which itself was a sample of Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby". - Drewman1211

No his biggest hit is Gold Digger not Stronger

He samples popular songs but most of them have major changes or are just better in general. he didn't rap Daft Punk lyrics he rapped over it. If that counts I'll dare you to put Eminem and Nas on the list - 4our2wen0ty

Their biggest hit "Butterfly", samples a song from Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Yup, Butterfly heavily sampled ‘Pretty Little Ditty’ by RHCP. - ReturnOfScorpio

Lemme guess: Yellow Submarine? Is that it? If not, educate me. - ReturnOfScorpio

Who? - peepsmith

Without You is a simple cover version. Also, Mariah used a lot of samples in her music, just like Beyonce Knowles

€�Tainted Love’ was a Gloria Jones cover. Marilyn Manson would also go on to cover this song. - ReturnOfScorpio

Wasn't he involved with the making of Blurred Lines? - ReturnOfScorpio

Fill me in, please? - ReturnOfScorpio

George subconsciously copied it. - Misfire

Harrison was actually sued for “My Sweet Lord”- he was accused of plagiarizing “He’s So Fine” by The Chiffons.

And it was one of the worst songs capable of being created by man. - NickelbackLinkinPark4Eva

Anyone with ears knows he ripped off Marvin Gaye...

This one’s probably gonna be a hot button issue in music for years to come. - ReturnOfScorpio

What do you mean? - Misfire

You're kidding right?

What? - Dragon12604

Wait, what? A whole genre? I can't really think of any punk acts that had a cover as their biggest hit. The biggest cover in punk I can think of is the Clash’s cover of ‘I Fought the Law’. - ReturnOfScorpio

Anaconda is very derivative of Baby Got Back by Sir Mix A Lot

Anaconda obviously sampled ‘Baby got Back’ by Sir Mix-a-Lot. - ReturnOfScorpio

Yeah, but the Byrds did so many changes to Turn! Turn! Turn! and Mr. Tambourine man, it became unique to their own style

Every single song from her "Lemonade" album has a sample. Crazy In Love and Single Ladies have famous samples too

"Wactha Say" takes its chorus right out of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" - ThatStrangeKid42

Dis Boi looks like Memeulous

His song trombone attacc is a remix of heart attack by scarlxrd and slide on the blocc contains samples from slide by calvin harris - ShrekTheGoat

€�Achy Breaky Heart’ was originally by the Marcy Brothers, and it was called ‘Don't Tell My Heart’. - ReturnOfScorpio

They had many big hits, and many songs associated with them.

However, their first major hit, ‘Twist And Shout’, was originally by the Topnotes. - ReturnOfScorpio

Lostprophets is definitely a highly controversial band, specially after the crimes committed by lead singer Ian Watkins. But, their biggest head was not a cover or heavily sampled from anything. - ReturnOfScorpio

Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Jason Weaver & Joseph Williams worst singers in the world

Behind Blue Eyes isn't exactly their biggest hit... - Undistinguished

Their biggest hit was Rollin’, which isn't sampled nor a cover. If you’re referring to their covers of ‘Faith’ by George Michael or ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ by The Who, those were nowhere near as big as Rollin’. - ReturnOfScorpio

Off the wall samples slipknots spit it out

Look at me samples changes by mala - ShrekTheGoat

Their biggest hit was ‘Down With the Sickness’ from 2000’s ‘The Sickness’, though they’ve had other hits in the forms of covers, including the ‘Sound of Silence’. - ReturnOfScorpio

€"Somebody That I Used to Know’ is his biggest hit, and it samples Luis Bonfá’s song ‘Seville’. Also, he just drop this banger, and then he dropped off the face of the earth.

I guess he’s just somebody that we used to know? - ReturnOfScorpio

Wouldn't their biggest hit be either Say It Ain't So, Island in the Sun, Buddy Holly or Beverly Hills? Which one of these are covers or heavily sampled from another song? Africa was popular, but isn't their "biggest hit". - LonelyLuke

Not really, their biggest hit Say It Ain't So didn't sample anything.

Are you talking about 'Africa'? Really? Really, really? - Undistinguished

Alright, I was the dummy who added Weezer to the list. I thought Africa was their biggest hit because of the meme with the tweet. -_- - oneshot