MickyDolenz said:

HuMpThAnG said:

Actually, this is the original

MJ admitted that this groove inspired Billie Jean, according to Daryl Hall

There's also these:

Night Rider ~ Midnight Star

Superstar ~ Lydia Murdock (answer song)

Like A Virgin ~ Madonna

Addicted To Love ~ Robert Palmer (remove the guitar and the rhythm sounds similar)

Dirty Dancer ~ Bar Kays

Let's not forget, Cee-Lo's, "Bright Light, Big City". The bassline, is exactly the same as, "Billie Jean"

What about artists recycling their own material? Babyface had to have decided On The Line was too good not to use or something.

[Edited 1/17/14 18:08pm]

novabrkr said:

Whoah, it's never occurred to me that "Part-time Lover" might have been inspired "a bit too much" by "Maneater". I still think it's really the melody and especially the chorus that counts when calling something a "ripoff". Both songs have that fairly banal-sounding rhythm track and it's hardly like that alone makes the songs.

Maneater sounds like it was influenced by You Can't Hurry Love by The Supremes

TonyVanDam said:

RIP-OFF:

Cindy Valentine -- In Your Midnight Hour (written by Cindy Valentine/Tony Green)

It's too obvious that Cindy copied the synth riffs from Jimmy Jam. Why Jam/Lewis never bother filing a lawsuit is still a mystery to me.

WOW! it is very obvious, as the bassline and chords land in the same way. There was probably no lawsuit because the melody on top is not copied, and that's how copyright lawsuits used to be.. when you were stealing a main melody on the same chords.

MickyDolenz said:

novabrkr said:

Whoah, it's never occurred to me that "Part-time Lover" might have been inspired "a bit too much" by "Maneater". I still think it's really the melody and especially the chorus that counts when calling something a "ripoff". Both songs have that fairly banal-sounding rhythm track and it's hardly like that alone makes the songs.

Maneater sounds like it was influenced by You Can't Hurry Love by The Supremes

Anything a white artist has ever done.

Soul Makossa ~ Manu Dibango / Do It Good ~ KC & The Sunshine Band

The chant on Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' comes from Soul Makossa too and he was sued about it.

Not sure if these are rip-offs or not but they all sound alike to me and coindentally, they were all produced by Babyface and all were released in the same year: 1989

[Edited 2/27/14 13:15pm]