5 Famous Guitar Riffs That Are Ripped Off

Everybody knows that Johnny B Goode was first played by Calvin Klein in 1955

-no intro -no nonsense -straight to the topic -legendary beard perfect video

Chuck wrote in his autobiography that you took something good and "worked on it until it became original." And he actually mentioned that the JBG lick came from a song he knew from years ago.

As well as musicians inspiring other musicians, every musician these days knows the feeling of writing the best piece you’ve ever made then realizing it’s literally just the last song you listened to

“The 1-4-5 from the blues, the 2-5-1 from the jazz, the 808 from hip-hop” - what a good line!

"Lets just call it inspiration and move on." Very sound advice. Excellent video, Paul.

I know this video is a few months old but for riff 5 I think it started with Deep Purples "Burn". It's completely impeccable. That track came out in 1974

The second half of the guitar solo in Johnny B Goode (the part with the breaks) is also 100% lifted from a T Bone Walker guitar solo from 1949 or 1950.

I once wrote a song and when I played it to my guitarist he said: "Yeah, man I don't know, that sounds a lot like Sultans of Swing". And there I was, Sultans of Swing being one of my favorite all time tunes. I had been so immersed into the creation and so proud of the result that I was completely oblivious to the blatant influence it had on this tune I wrote Edit: I understand this can be interpreted as me boasting about having written SoS again, including the amazing solos. Of course that's not what happened. It's more about the chord structure and the overall feel of the song. And what I wrote isn't nearly as great as SoS. Hope that's clear!

Adding the 'Come As You Are' vocals over 'Eighties' and 'Life Goes On' sounded brilliant.

Very pleased to hear The Damned mentioned. So often Killing Joke are the only comparison given. It feels like a petty that The Damned didn't make more of that baseline than throw it away on a filler track on the Strawberries album, particularly as they are my favourite band of all time and made me aware that there was a totally different scene outside 'the hit parade' back in the early '80s. Well worth the 15 miles walk home after my first time seeing them live.

Love this! I used to get caught up in artists “stealing” riffs but I’ve honestly broadened my view. If an artist can take something and make it their own then by all means. There is definitely still such a thing as “stealing” a song but most of these weren’t. Great vid

Coming up with something that hasn’t been done can be difficult but it also gives some insight to why we guitar players gravitate to innovators who do something fresh and new that we can’t categorize.

Blackmore is kind of notorious for messing with interviewers. My favourite bit was when he explained to a journalist how his mother was a gypsy and had taught him all manner of superstitions and magical rituals and that his dad had worked at the airport.

This was a great video man, you should make this a series, as I’m sure there are countless other examples.

Great video! Very fair and educated analysis of each riff. So many variations of the riff for 2 minutes to midnight (a few I never heard before) but Adrian Smith still plays it with the best groove and tone. 🤘

I always knew about Killing Joke/Nirvana but didn't know about The Damned doing it first! You truly can learn something new every day.

Mentioning Budgie makes Paul even more of a legend than he already was

You should know that I recently picked up learning to play again, after an unsuccessful attempt 3 years ago, and that's largely in part to a few videos of yours that popped up. I have a piano background anyway and missed playing music but your channel is brilliant and just the sort of thing I needed to reignite that spark, and more importantly keep my interest high while I'm waiting on my fingers toughening up again! Keep it up man, and thanks

I would love to hear you analyze 'Eight Miles High" by the Byrds. Roger McQuinn was moving in a direction completely different from the blues rock coming from Engliand; one won't hear those kinds of phrases--there are so many of them---until the age of thrash.