"Change Of Heart" / "My Forbidden Lover"

[FrontPage22]

Is it just me or are these the same song, just redone by Jam & Lewis in the case of Change? :o

[maarten]

How dare you! Compare two so utterly different tracks

I think you are getting your song titles confused. I think "Change Of Heart" (by Change) is very (VERY) similar (but not the same) as "You are my melody" (Change), "Weekend girl" (SOS Band), "Tell me (if you still care)" (SOS Band) and "Just be good to me" (also SOS Band).

And I think "My forbidden lover" (Chic) is very much the same as pretty much anything else Rodgers & Edwards came up with (and thank God they did!).

I guess Jam & Lewis went through a "phase" and the songs came out sort of similar. This is not unheard of (uh oh I might be upsetting people...). It happened again with Jam & Lewis on the albums of Alexander O'Neal ("Hearsay"), and Cherelle ("High priority).

Think of Barry White. Sometimes he even recorded the same track with his different outfits.

Or the whole lot of the Solar stable... there was a lot of interchangeability (is that English? :oops: ) between their artists.

Think of Quincy Jones, end 70's early 80's. Think of Gamble & Huff, Jacques Fred Petrus (Change, BB&Q Band), etc. etc.

Nothing wrong with it. If it sounds great, why change. And this does not mean these tracks aren't great.

PS Most cars nowadays look the same as well. Except the Hummer. That one just looks plain ridiculous... and is a banner ad for bad taste AND disrespect for the environment.

Ok, ok, bring it on!

[Nano]

Of course, this copycat thing comes from the old James Brown-Stax-Motown days. Think of Marvin Gaye's "That's the way love is" against his earlier hit "I heard it through the grapevine" (both produced by Norman Whitfield). Or any James Brown recording following a hit, etc.
This reminds us that, however we love it and think of it as art, this music was created industry-wise (which it's not bad in itself) and is "pop" in the truest meaning of the term. I'm always amazed at the simplicity of the soul musicians in interviews, compared to their rock counterparts. They sound so much mature on hindsight; they had no pretentions.

BTW, I'm opposed to "My forbidden lover" being a copy of anything. "My forbidden lover" is one of my favorite disco tracks, period. It kinda grew on me with the years, and when I bought a Chic compilation on CD the joy of re-discovering it was a great feeling. I don't know exactly why; I just love this recording. 8)