Samples: Where’d That Come From?

By Christian Lipski

In addition to my love of original versions of songs, I also like to collect songs that are used as samples in other songs.

If you spent any time listening to rap in the ’80s, you will have heard lots of samples being shared among the different songs. You may already be familiar with the drum break from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” used in songs like LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise,” and even “Deep Forest” by Deep Forest, but how many of you have heard the actual song?

It’s funny to hear such a familiar snippet show up while listening to a song you’ve never heard – it’s almost like “Funky Drummer” was sampling that beat itself, it’s so well-known.

Another artist whose work you most certainly have heard without knowing is Billy Squier. His track “The Big Beat” starts off with a drum track that was at one point considered the most sampled beat in all of rap. Check out UTFO’s “Roxanne, Roxanne,” Big Daddy Kane’s “Ain’t No Half Steppin’,” or Ice Cube’s “Jackin’ for Beats” to hear Squier’s drummer Bobby Chouinard.

Sometimes the original song is really not that exceptional, but the drum break is good enough to save. I’m not a big fan of “Think (About It)” by Lyn Collins (the Lady Preacher), but I like the “It takes two” bit that gets used in Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock’s “It Takes Two, ” for example. For the most part, though, the original song is a pretty damn funky track that caught the ear of a diligent DJ.

Mining for originals is also a good way to expose yourself to early R&B and funk tracks, though that’s not the only genre that has provided samples, as Billy Squier can attest. Herbie Hancock’s jazz tune “Cantaloupe Island” served as the foundation for Us3’s “Cantaloupe,” and the slow pop of “You Showed Me” by the Turtles is the basis for De La Soul’s litigious “Transmitting Live from Mars.” Also appearing in court was Biz Markie, whose “Alone Again” used what was apparently too much of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s loping “Alone Again (Naturally).”

Check out The Breaks and Who Sampled? for good info about who originally did that sample – you’d be surprised to see where some of them came from. My favorite originals: “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” by Bob James (you will know those bells right away!) and Sly & the Family Stone’s “Loose Booty” (Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego). What are yours?