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TL;DR:

  • A Harry Styles song has guitar-plucking reminiscent of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” from The White Album.
  • Styles’ song isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, it just cannot hold a candle to “Blackbird.”
  • “Blackbird” wasn’t a single but Styles’ song charted in the United States.
The Beatles in black-and-white in the "Blackbird" era
The Beatles | John Pratt / Stringer

The Beatles‘ “Blackbird” is one of the Fab Four’s most beloved ballads. One Harry Styles song is a blatant rip-off of “Blackbird.” Despite that, Styles’ rip-off was a bigger hit than the original song.

The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ was obviously the template for Harry Styles’ ‘Sweet Creature’

The Beatles’ “Blackbird” isn’t one of the band’s showiest songs, but it cuts right to the heart. It’s a sparse folk ballad that relies on Paul McCartney’s earnest vocals and some simple guitar strumming.

That simple strumming sounds a lot like the strumming in Styles’ “Sweet Creature.” Classic rock songs have clearly inspired a lot of Styles’ music, but this is one of his most blatant lifts. There’s nothing wrong with Beatles references, but maybe Styles should build his influences into something novel.

“Sweet Creature” isn’t a bad song, but it’s bland and straightforward. Part of what makes “Blackbird” interesting is its ambiguity. Judging “Blackbird” in a vacuum, it might be a song about a bird or it might have a deeper meaning.

Harry Styles says teenage girls liked The Beatles because they have great taste

Styles clearly likes The Beatles. During a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, he used The Beatles to defend his core demographic: teenage girls. “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music — short for popular, right? — have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy?” he said. “That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. 

“Young girls like The Beatles,” he noticed. “You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going.”

In addition, Styles said he appreciated the honesty of his fans. “Teenage-girl fans — they don’t lie,” he said. “If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.“

How ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Sweet Creature’ performed on the charts in the United States

The Beatles’ “Blackbird” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on The Beatles’ The White Album. That album topped the Billboard 200 for nine weeks, remaining on the chart for 215 weeks in total.

On the other hand, “Sweet Creature” was a minor hit. It reached No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week before falling off the chart. The tune appeared on Styles’ debut solo album, Harry Styles. The album was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for one week, lasting on the chart for 153 weeks altogether.

“Sweet Creature” wasn’t a huge hit but it shows the Fab Four are still inspiring musicians.

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