Nickelback released one song twice. Do you know which one?

I saw this over at kottke.org, and couldn’t resist sharing it.

I think anyone in America who occasionally listens to the radio has heard a song or two by Nickelback. However, if you’ve heard two of their songs, “How You Remind Me” and “Someday”, you may have actually heard only one song. Why? Because besides the lyrics, they’re pretty much the same song. You can listen to them, side by side (one in the left speaker, one in the right), right here.

I checked out the article on Wikipedia about Nickelback, and sure enough, there was a section about this little issue. The bassist of the band responded:

“I think that’s remarkable for someone to notice that there is a hit quality. If all hits sound the same, then sorry. When you are a band that has a distinct style such as us or AC/DC, that happens. When you have a distinct style, you run the risk of sounding similar.”

You run the risk of sounding similar? Similar?! It’s the same damn song! The drum line is identical throughout the whole thing, and a lot of the guitar / bass lines line up exactly, too!

I think what the bassist was trying to say was that if you take one song, copy it, change a few things, and then release the song again, you’ll get caught.