Several sites are reporting that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have ripped off Tom Petty’s “Last Dance with Mary Jane” in their new single “Dani California”. Being a fan of both bands, I decided to check it out for myself.
My cousin downloaded “Dani California” and we listened to it at his house. The main riff is essentially exactly the same with some small Chili Peppers flare. I had listened to “Last Dance” so many times in the 90′s that I barely needed to refresh it to hear the similarities.
However… “Dani California” has some very different sound in the middle of the song. The hook for the track is very well done and it doesn’t remind me much of “Last Dance” in that regard. I had the Chili Pepper’s new song stuck in my head tonight, so I decided to plop down my $1 at iTunes to get it.
I am a huge fan of Tom Petty, much moreso than the Chili Peppers but the new song is catchy in its own regard, so I have no qualms about owning both.
Someone has done a side-by-side snippet comparison of the two songs here, so listen for yourself. Discuss! 
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4 users responded in this post
Who cares! It’s not like 27 x 10^~ other bands haven’t done this already. It happens almost daily.
Red Hot Chili Peppers. <33
No matter what, they kick ass.
<3
Yeah, they’re not bad. They tend to sound the same in all of their songs though… makes it hard to listen to a lot of them. Plus ripping off Tom Petty is bad. You shouldn’t rip off Tom Petty. mmkay.
Eh, I like the samness of the music. They’re one of the few bands I can put up with that.
Ripping off Tom Petty, eh yeah. I didn’t like that. But I did like the remake they did..
But I guess sense I like RHCP > Tom Petty, which makes me less angry about the situation.
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