Remember Huey Lewis vs. Ray Parker Jr? (Huey successfully sued Ray claiming that Ghostbusters resembled I Want A New Drug)

Well, how about ELO vs. Huey Lewis ...

Did you ever notice that certain parts of Huey's 1982 hit Do You Believe in Love and ELO's 1978 hit Sweet Talkin' Woman sound a bit similar  :o

Click one of the underlined song titles to hear a clip and tell me if you think they sound alike

Sweet Talkin' Woman - written by Jeff Lynne

Do You Believe in Love - written by Robert John "Mutt" Lange

Remember Huey Lewis vs. Ray Parker Jr? (Huey successfully sued Ray claiming that Ghostbusters resembled I Want A New Drug)


Never heard this before, but now that you mention this, I can definitely hear a resemblance between the two songs.  I wonder if this was deliberate on Ray Parker Jr's part, or if he did it unconsciously?  (I would imagine it must be tough for composers to avoid accidentally ripping off other musicians' themes).

I'll take a listen to the ELO song shortly and see what I think. I'm already familiar with "Do You Believe in Love" about 50,000 times over - lol, so no need for that. ;)

I often do comparisons of things like this myself, so I always thought it was cool to see what other people thought on similar levels. Oftentimes, if it weren't for someone else pointing a certain thing out, I'd have never picked up on it.

That said, I actually heard of the "I Want a New Drug" vs "Ghostbusters" thing a long time back, on a VH1 show in the early 90's. Despite what others said, I honestly never saw a direct similarity between them myself.

(I would imagine it must be tough for composers to avoid accidentally ripping off other musicians' themes).
Not for the Rap "Artists" who blatantly rip off many rock and roll songs riffs....they call it "Sampling" but it's really only stealing >:(

Hey Marty! I think they do have many similarities. Here's another one for ya...same band. Blue Oyster Cult: Don't Fear The Reaper~1976 and Burning For You~1981 ;)

That said, I actually heard of the "I Want a New Drug" vs "Ghostbusters" thing a long time back, on a VH1 show in the early 90's. Despite what others said, I honestly never saw a direct similarity between them myself.


I never saw a similarity either.  I think Huey was just looking for an excuse to make a quick buck  ;D

^ Yeah, I got that impression too. I'd hope that's not entirely true, as Huey always struck me as an ultra nice guy.

Actually (from his Behind the Music ep) apparently it was his manager, Bob Brown, who first noticed a similarity when he was at home watching TV one day.

I'll agree "Ghostbusters" is kind of a rock-ish song from an R&B artist, and "I Want a New Drug" is a classic/pop rocker. They both sound 1984-ish and mainstream, but not like the same song. ;D

Hey Marty! I think they do have many similarities. Here's another one for ya...same band. Blue Oyster Cult: Don't Fear The Reaper~1976 and Burning For You~1981 ;)


Yeah, I like both of those, so I can see that. They also were both fairly commercial in comparison to most of the bands' other work. Heck, I'd almost say they set the stage for pop/metal.

I think those 2 were their only real "hit singles" (maybe "Godzilla" too) - generally, they were a darker 70's metal band.

I think those 2 were their only real "hit singles" (maybe "Godzilla" too) - generally, they were a darker 70's metal band.


Reaper and Burnin' were indeed the only two real (top 40) hits for BOC.  The did have two other minor chart entries with In Thee (US #74, 1979) and Club Ninja (US #83, 1984) :)