The music industry is always renewing itself. And that’s why we see artists, producers and other people working to create songs that are liked by those who listen to them, even if they have to take inspiration from them to do so. products already created and use the well-known samples.
For those unfamiliar with the genre, samples in the music world are fragments of sound or music that are taken from a recording that already exists and which is later used to create new songs.
Samples in songs are very common in music
Although its use has been a debate between whether it is legal or not and its limits, samples in music are becoming more common since the 1980s, where technology gave way to digital recording and this, in turn, allowed artists to modify their creations.
The samples in the songs they are almost always drum rhythms or guitar fragments to give rhythm to a song. However, there are also those who use other elements of songs to give texture or body to a song and even those who use them as a tribute to their favorite artists.
Artists have been using samples in their songs for decades.
As we discussed, the use of samples in songs has led to great successes, but also to huge lawsuits for copyright and more. And it is that on some occasions, the artists do not ask the creators of the songs they sample for permission.
For better or worse, the reality is that heThe samples in the songs exist and more often than it seemsWell, it’s enough to pay attention and investigate a little to realize that many of the songs we currently listen to contain one.
10 Famous Songs That Used Samples From Other Songs
Here we already nailed the theme of samples in popular songs, we put together a count of 10 songs, for artists ranging from Dua Lipa to Robbie Williams, that contain samples and probably didn’t even notice:
10.- “Rappers Delight” de The Sugarhill Gang
“Rapper’s Delight” del trío de hip hop, The Sugarhill Ganguses the iconic guitar and bass riff we hear in the song “Good Times” de Chic, released in 1979. But they weren’t the only ones who sampled that song.
Other roles like “Another One Bites the Dust”, de Queen they have a rhythm similar to that of the bass and even artists like Will Smith used the sample of a part of “Good Times” for the beginning of his song “It’s All Good”, released in 1997.
9.- “Millennium”, de Robbie Williams
Perhaps many lovers of James Bond tapes remember the song “You Only Live Twice” de Nancy Sinatrasince it was part of the soundtrack in the 1967 film. Well, this song has an orchestral arrangement and a vocal melody that Robbie Williams used for his song “Millennium”, from 1998.
Was producer Guy Chambers who decided to take a piece of the melody from “You Only Live Twice” and put it in the intro of “Millennium”. Something that, in addition to being remarkable, the singer’s fans appreciate, as it gave the song a rather sophisticated sound.
8.- “Sing For The Moment”, de Eminem
“Sing for the Moment” de Eminemis another of the songs that have a sample, because this song from the album ‘The Eminem Show’, from 2002, is based on a piano arrangement and a guitar line from the song “Dream On”, de Aerosmith.
In this case, the sample not only remains in the field of sound, since the American rapper also uses a part of Aerosmith’s lyrics that he recently went viral thanks to TikTok videos featuring characters from the game ‘Among Us’.
We are increasingly seeing young artists using samples from older artists in their songs.
7.- “Love Again” by Dua Lipa
Yes, many remember the song of “Love Again” for being part of Dua Lipa’s hit album, ‘Future Nostalgia’or the video where we see the British singer dressed as a cowgirl and riding a mechanical bull.
However, this track released in 2020 uses a rather particular sample of the song “My Woman” de Al Bowlly con Lew Stone and His Monseigneur Bandwhich was launched in 1932 and which had a more “modern” reinterpretation by Dua Lipa.
6.- “Please, Don’t Stop The Music”, de Rihanna
who does not remember “Please Don’t Stop the Music” de Rihanna? The song released in 2007 was one of the singles from the singer’s famous third album, ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’. But also, she is known for having sampled Michael Jackson.
In this song the singer from Barbados used a sample of the song “Wanna Be Starting Something” de Michael Jackson, launched in the year 1983. And it is nothing more and nothing less than the well-known “Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa” that the king of pop made popular at that time.
5.- “Moving Too Fast”, de Supafly Inc.
Surely many identify it at the first listen and it is obvious. Supafly Inc.’s “Moving Too Fast” used a sample of the well-known Phil Collins classic, “Another Day in Paradise”, from 1989 and that many quinceañeras or people in love have heard since then.
Supafly Inc. used the sample where the British singer says “She calls out to the man on the street, ‘Sir, can you help me?’”. Although hey, it will be enough for them to listen to less than a minute of “Moving Too Fast” for them to identify the sampled part.
4.- “Men In Black”, de Will Smith
One of the most iconic songs of the 90s also used a sample that helped it become a success (beyond the well-known movie), because Will Smith sampled Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots” for the “Men In Black” song.
Basically the bass part and the melody of “Forget Me Nots” helped the “Men In Black” song to be born, so we can say that It’s one of the most overtly sampled songs in the world. If not, just listen and compare:
Some samples can be full songs or quite specific parts of other songs.
3.- “Money Trees”, de Kendrick Lamar
If its fans Beach House and when they heard “Money Trees” de Kendrick Lamar they felt that it was familiar to them, they were not hallucinating. And it is that the rapper originally from Compton sampled the song “Silver Soul”creation of the dream pop duo.
DJ Dahi, producer of the song that Kendrick included on his album ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City’, he used the sample of the Beach House song in an inverted manner and with a higher speed. However, the use of melody is evident.
2.- “Use This Gospel”, by Ye
In October 2019, the rapper released his ninth studio album. ‘Jesus is King’ and we must say that one of the surprises we encountered at that time was noticing the sample in “Use This Gospel”, since it is clear that it took inspiration from “Costume Party” by Two Door Cinema Club.
Although in Ye’s song the musical note is one key lower, the rhythm is exactly the same. Kind of weird considering that Two Door Cinema Club’s song was a B-side of the song “I Can Talk” and it was not as well known as other songs on the album ‘Tourist History’.
1.- “Pump It”, de los Black Eyed Peas
Yes, many do not know it, but one of the most iconic songs that sounded in the now distant 2009 and that mixed cars, a catchy melody and that made many fall in love with Fergie, was born thanks to the sample of a song from the 60s.
The guitar that we hear at the beginning (and throughout the song actually) in “Pump It” by the Black Eyed Peas, comes from a surf rock song called “Miserlou”, created by musician Dick Dale and which you surely know from being part of the movie ‘Pulp Fiction’, by Quentin Tarantino.
As you can see, samples in songs are almost everywhere, regardless of era or genre of musiche. What song do you know that has a sample?
