Sampling (or the practice of taking a brief part of a preexisting song to create the beat for a new one) is much more common that most people tend to notice, and it’s not limited to rap music. Everyone, from pop star Beyoncé to electronic duo Daft Punk does it.
The website WhoSampled.com, comes in extremely handy when you are trying like crazy to figure out what that tune was you heard in the background of a new hit song. “I think that’s James Brown,” you may have thought a million times, without being able to pinpoint the exact song that was sampled.
According to this crowdsourced (yet curated) site, the most-sampled track in history is The Winstons’ 1969 song “Amen, Brother,” used in more than 2,200 songs, including tracks by N.W.A., Slipknot, Janet Jackson, and David Bowie.
In a recent FiveThirtyEight article, David Goldenberg shared a look at the other then songs that complete the top 10 ranking.
| 1 | "Amen, Brother" | The Winstons | 1969 | 2,239 |
| 2 | "Change the Beat" (Female Version) | Beside | 1982 | 1,853 |
| 3 | "Think (About It)" | Lyn Collins | 1972 | 1,588 |
| 4 | "Funky Drummer" | James Brown | 1970 | 1,302 |
| 5 | "La Di Da Di" | Doug E. Fresh | 1985 | 794 |
| 6 | "Funky President (People It’s Bad)" | James Brown | 1974 | 736 |
| 7 | "Bring the Noise" | Public Enemy | 1987 | 686 |
| 8 | "Synthetic Substitution" | Melvin Bliss | 1973 | 658 |
| 9 | "Impeach the President" | The Honey Drippers | 1973 | 650 |
| 10 | "Here We Go" (Live at the Funhouse) | Run-DMC | 1985 | 635 |
Sources: WhoSampled.com & FiveThirtyEight
To learn some more about the beginnings of sampling, check out Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX)’s new series, "The Getdown," which goes into how rap music was born in the Bronx.
For a history of how “Amen, Brother” became the most sampled song of all time, go to the article linked above.
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Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above.
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