Top Ten Songs Inspired by Other Songs

Led Zeppelin gave the White Stripes the idea that you could have plain lyrics and then have your riff follow, and they used that to make one of their best songs ever.

Ritchie Blackmore wrote a killer riff to 'Spotlight Kid'. You can hear clearly this same riff in the 'Panic Attack' intro and many times throughout the entire song. It's one of the coolest elements in 'Panic Attack', if not the coolest.
And yes, 'Panic Attack' is a very famous and critically acclaimed song by Dream Theater.

Both songs have very similar build up and very reflective lyrics. As well as great guitar solos by John Petrucci/Alex Lifeson!

In 1968, the publishers of a French song called "Comme d'habitude" were looking for an English songwriter to write new lyrics and make it an international hit. Bowie, a struggling singer and songwriter at the time, submitted a set of lyrics and called it "Even a Fool Learns to Love". It got rejected, and the songwriters chose Paul Anka, who used it to write "My Way". When Bowie was upset, he decided to write his own, more eccentric version. That became "Life on Mars". The two songs start with the same progression, but by the end of the second set of words in the verse, Bowie took it in a completely different direction. When life takes your lemons, make your own juice.

The two songs don't share the same melody or chord progression, but the way the backing vocals were recorded was inspired by 10cc. A series of notes were sung on the word "ah", and these notes were turned into tape loops, meaning that the word "ah" can be played ad infinitum. A bunch of these notes were fed into the mixing console, and the engineer would raise up or bring down certain notes to match the chords of the song. Essentially, they used the console as a musical instrument!

Kind of a style parody.

Although this song is actually a cover of a song by BJ Thomas, the original version doesn't have the famous "Ooga Chaka Ooga Ooga" chant anywhere in the song. So where did Blue Swede come up with the idea? As it turns out, they were listening to a bootleg tape of the sessions for Smile, and one of the songs, "Do You Like Worms? ", had a similar chant recurring throughout the song. Inspired, they decided to create their own version of the chant and use it in "Hooked on a Feeling".

Eric Clapton said that he was a fan of the Lovin Spoonful and that he really liked the way the chords to Summer In the City descended down in sequence. He had the idea to do something similar, which ended up becoming Tales of Brave Ulysses.