Skip to content
Home/ Sounds Like Teen Spirit: Stolen Melodies, Ripped-off Riffs, and the Secret History of Rock and Roll
Sounds Like Teen Spirit: Stolen Melodies, Ripped-off Riffs, and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

Sounds Like Teen Spirit: Stolen Melodies, Ripped-off Riffs, and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780692593578 Timothy English

Sounds Like Teen Spirit provides hundreds of pairings of songs that appear to have "borrowed" their melodies from earlier songs. Readers wil discover the music that influnced the songs of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and many more.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit covers recent plagirism cases involveing Robin Thicke, Sam Smith and Coldplay as well as famous cases such as when George Harrison was sued over his song "My Sweet Lord" by the publishers of the Chiffons' "He's So Fine"

Readers will never hear the familiar songs in quite the same way after reading Sounds Like Teen Spirit. For example, the Doors' "Hello I Love You" has the same melody and the Kinks' "All Day and All Night," and the riff that powered Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a variation on the guitar riff from Boston's "More than a Feeling."

Sounds Like Teen Spirit explains that creative artists are influenced by a wide and often surprising range of sources. For instance, John Lennon's song "Imagine" may have have been influenced by a novelty song that his father recorded to cash in on his son's fame, and Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" contains the melody from "The Banana Splits Theme!"

About the author

Product details

BrandTimothy English
Pub dateJan 11, 2016
ISBN-100692593578
ISBN-139780692593578
LanguageEnglish
Paperback450.0 pages
Dimensions9 × 0.91 × 6 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-10-14 09:04
$22.20
In stock — ships in 24 hours with free tracking
Delivery by Monday, October 19, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.