The usual culprit for clone songs are advertising companies. Not wanting to pay the original artist, but still use their funky tune, they usually resort to making something so similar to the original, you’d think it was the same song with a few notes out of place. It happened to Eminem, Sigur Rós, REM and now it seems The XX are the latest victim. Compare the following songs:
The song “Intro” by the XX, released in August 2009:
And this Hugo Boss commercial released in April 2014:
I’ve talked about clone songs before. Sometimes it’s obvious a clone song tries to rip off the original, but sometimes you can wonder whether it is meant as a tribute to the composers favourite music or simply that they didn’t even realise they were using a melody of their favourite artist. In the case of Shine a Little Light by Dutch artist Van Velzen it might be the latter. The song’s vocal line strikes a remarkable resemblance with Raise Your Hands by Bon Jovi. The most obvious clue there was no ill intention when writing the song is that in 2008 Van Velzen performed as the opening act for Bon Jovi (source in Dutch) when he performed in The Netherlands.
Die Antwoord has a new video out: Baby’s on Fire. Besides it being an awesome piece of work, it also contains a very old school rave sample in there. Does any one recognise Anasthasia by T99?
Honestly though, the sample in T99’s track is a sample too. Where the so called ‘Orch Hit‘ sound came from can only be answered by the producers behind T99; Patrick De Meyer and Phil de Wilde. You may that last one under the name Phil Wilde (whom I mentioned before), one of the two producers behind 2Unlimited.
There’s another sample in Anasthasia by the way; the “Music, maestro! Please?” comes from Bring It On Up by Love Unlimited Orchestra
This is the last Origin of Samples post for now. It gave me great pleasure digging through the history of sampling, even discovering a few new things myself. Hopefully I can pick it up some time in the future, but for now I’ll be focussing my energy on my own music. More about that next week! For now let’s end with something epic:
Classical composer Carl Orff”s masterpiece Carmina Burana, composed between 1935 and 1936, contains the most familiar movement of his work which has been used countless times in popular culture: O Fortuna. In music this often meant just playing it before a show to make the entrance of the artist more glorious.
Sampling didn’t really happen until the early 90’s when KMFDM used bits of it in Liebeslied (1990) . The most infamous samplings of O Fortuna happened simultaneously in 1991 however.
At the early peak of house music two Belgian producers sampled O Fortuna, had the songs played in clubs and decided to release it. Their bombastic track O Fortuna was released in 1991 under their recording name Apotheosis. Right in the same week, a group that called themselves Fortuna feat. Satenig released their song O Fortuna. The song was much more mellow and radio-friendly and didn’t use a sample from any recording, but clearly replayed the tunes from Carl Orff’s version.
By this time the heirs of the deceased Carl Orff had gotten wind of this and sued. They managed to ban both tracks in the week that they were released. This meant that the cd-singles were on the shelves still on Saturday, but by Monday were all gone. I know, because I managed to snatch up a copy of the Apotheosis version the Saturday after it was announced the songs would be banned.
The tracks entered the Dutch charts at #4 and #1 that week and then the week after dropped out of the charts completely, which had never happened before. The radio stations couldn’t play the songs (even though Fortuna feat. Satenig had made a different version with different note progression).
Interestingly though, even though the songs still aren’t released, the original O Fortuna was sampled countless times after that. You can see the list on WhoSampled.com, but here’s some notable examples. Enigma used it twice in the track Modern Crusaders(1999) and more prominently in Gravity of Love (1999).
In hiphop where the ego’s match the grandeur of the song perfectly, it was sampled by Nas ft. Puff Daddy in Hate Me Now (1999), by Cam’ron in Get’Em Girls (2004), Stack Bundles in Ya Dig (2006) and many others after that.
Dance music, despite two dance tracks being banned because of the sampling, kept on using it too. Most were samples in gabber/hardcore: Chosen Few in 2006, DJ Wicked in 2000 (who actually sampled the Apotheosis track!), DJ Outblast in 2001. Even a rather more radio-friendly non-hardcore dance track O Fortuna by Hypster seems okay in 2011.
Probably the most interesting dance version post-Apotheosis is the Anthem for the huge dance party Sensation White 2004 (annually held in a stadium) by The Rush. Though it doesn’t sample anything directly, it’s obvious what the inspiration for the track is.
And of course there’s a few odd ones out. Ministry used it in their anti-Bush song No W in 2004. Clan of Xymox got away with sampling it in 2006 in Be My Friend. BOB released a song called O Fortuna in 2008, with different lyrics but a familiar melody. No one was sued.
So if you plan on covering or sampling Carl Orff, apparently it’s okay if you clear the rights or make sure his heirs don’t find out about it. And with that advise I’ll end this column for now. Hit it it Carl!
In 1980 Siouxsie and the Banshees released the song Happy House as a single. As irony has, a decade later it’s melody would be used to produce a big commercial house music hit.
The distinguishing riff from the opening first pops up in the 1990 track Neue Dimensionen by Techno Bert. Despite the German title (and lyrics), the producers behind it were Italian and the track was released on an Italian label. My guess is that’s how Italian producer Gianfranco Bortolotti got wind of it.
Bortolotti was the man behind Euro-dance group Capella. While he had released singles before under the name it wasn’t till the release of U Got 2 Know in 1992 that Capella scored its first massive hit throughout Europe and beyond … with the same tune from Happy House. Later Capella would get sued over this and lost.
Spacework disregarded the melody and sampled the vocals from the original Happy House in the track Happy House in 1993, as a clever reference the the house scene that was booming at the time.
Whosampled.com also lists the bassline in Calvin Harris’ Acceptable in the 80’s from 2007 as being an interpolation of Happy House. The 2009 song Dressed to Kill by Preston however hardly hides it’s original. The Weeknd also sampled it in the song Glass Table Girls in 2011. On top of those there were also covers by Ginger Ale (2002), Celluloide(2003) and Shindu (2011).
A few weeks back, Coldplay was in the news for yet again ‘borrowing’ some one else’s music for a song. This time though, they were honest about it and even secured the rights to do so. Their song Every Teardrop is a Waterfall takes its opening from Peter Allen’s song I go to Rio (1977). Coldplay is not the first to sample it though.
Apart from a French cover in 1977 by Claude François and a cover by Pablo Cruise in 1978, nobody touched the song for over a decade. In 1990 however a multitude of songs pop up, all titled Ritmo de la Noche. All of them sample I go to Rio and clearly one of them was the original and the other songs did a cover version of it.
The people at whosampled.com did some research and figured out the first released version was by Chocolate. It had several dance remixes on the single. Also in 1990 it got released by Mystic. And by Lorca (which was probably one of the more famous versions). And by The Sacados. Oh and in 2004 Safri Duo did their own version too. It was an instant hit, though you can question by who.
I love how all the commenters on Youtube for the different versions of Ritmo de la Nocha-versions complain about Coldplay ripping of that song while actually almost all of them are a cover from the Chocolate-version and that song samples I go to Rio. Irony.
Last week I discussed The Power (1990) by Snap!. Among others it samples The King of Beats (1988) by Mantronix. Silly, cause the whole track by Mantronix is a collection of various (now famous and over-used) samples such as (among others) Kool & the Gang’s Jungle Jazz (1975), the Amen-break and Pleasure’s Celebrate the Good Things (1978).
The first time it was sampled was by the Crash Crew in 1982 in Breaking Bells (Take me to the Mardi Gras). After that it laid dormant for a year, was sample again in 1984, but since 1986 it has been almost sampled non-stop. The track that kicked off the trend was probably Run DMC’s Peter Piper from 1986. The Beastie Boys were subtle about it in 1986 and used only the drum-break not the bells in Hold it now, Hit it.
After hiphop used it to death, it started popping up in popular music too. In the same year as Snap! used it (1990), it also popped up in Caron Wheeler’s Living in the Light. While PM Dawn’s 1991 hit Set a Drift on Memory Bliss heavily on True(1983) by Spandau Ballet, it also uses the Mardi Gras bells. TLC’s Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg from 1992 too.
Missy Elliot released the song Work Itin 2002 and at the end we find what’s almost an homage to classic hiphop: the Mardi Gras bells. Interestingly Missy Elliot’s vocals also feature earlier on a song that leaned heavily on the Mardi Gras bells: That Thing You Do by Gina Thompson from 1996.
A more recent example from 2008 is the song Carry Out by Timbaland (featuring Justin Timberlake). The catch in this song however is that the bells were pitched up to a point where they’re almost unrecognisable. You almost wonder why it was sampled at all.
Last week I discussed Love’s Gonna Get You by Jocelyn Brown from 1985. One of the most famous tracks that sampled it is The Power from 1991 by Snap!. The song however is surrounded by controversy.
First of all there’s the obvious use of Jocelyn Brown’s vocals. Jocelyn Brown’s sample was used without permission or credit by the German producers behind Snap!: Michael Muenzing and Luca Anzilotti. Jocelyn Brown wasn’t pleased with that and still isn’t.
Secondly the first version The Power sampled the vocals and music from Let The Words Flow by Chill Rob G from 1989. Originally The Power was released under the name Power Jam (feat. Chill Rob G). When all of the samples didn’t clear and they threatened to get in trouble, the producers said fuck it, and re-recorded the vocals with Turbo B, an American soldier/rapper who was stationed in Germany and re-released it as Snap!. It’s ironic considering Turbo B’s lyric “copywritten lyrics so they can’t be stolen” in The Power.
Lastly, the music used in The Power is mainly one sample from the Mantronix track King of the Beatsfrom 1988. Which is silly considering they could’ve just sampled the original that Mantronix used. But more about that original next week.
Eventually, as The Power got embedded in pop-culture, it too got sampled. The Farm’s Stepping Stone remix from 1990. Everybodyby Members of Shockwave in 1995. The Ting Tings covered the song Standing in the Way of Control by The Gossip in 2008 with a sample from The Power. Hit the Floor by Big Ali ft. Dollarman from 2008. Ghettosocks used it in Take Chains Off from 2009. There’s a remix of Kanye West’s song Power from 2010 which, apart from featuring vocals by Jay-Z also features a sample of The Power.
A while back I was going to do a post about this, but there were so many links to other songs, I had to split it in three parts. Today part 1.
In 1985 Jocelyn Brown released Love’s Gonna Get You, after being the backup singer for many other artists. The single itself went to the top of the dance tracks at the time (#1 in the US dance chart). Now as you may have noted from the YouTube video, this is the dance mix, but the same single also had an A Capella mix. This makes it ideal for sampling.
In 1990, Boogie Down Productions used the chorus in the hiphop song after Love’s Gonna Get’cha. With the dance scene taking off, Jocelyn Brown’s voice became a popular source for sampling. Off Shore used a different bit from the same track in their 1991 track I can’t Take the Power. The sample ‘Deputy of Love‘in the track with the same name by the Deputies of Love from 1991 is again Jocelyn Brown. The yeaaah-sample in Moby’s track Go! from 1991 is Jocelyn Brown. Bizarre Inc.’s 1992 track I’m Gonna Get You partly samples and works around the original. Apart from bursting from cliché dance samples of the time, the 1992 track Running So Hard by Sophia also puts a sample in there, including the yeaaah that Moby used.
Suddenly, when the whole ‘diva dance’-genre sort of died out and people started simply hiring Jocelyn Brown to sing lyrics for them, the usage of samples from that track died out too and was pushed to less mainstream genres. It only popped up twice again in 1994: in DJ Dano’s hardcore track I’m gonna get you and the drum ‘n bass track You Got Me by Alex Reece and Wax Doctor. It wasn’t till 2008 it popped up in I Got The Power by Ya Boy from 2008.
You’ll notice however I left out the biggest hit based on Love’s Gonna Get You. That track is The Power by Snap! which I’ll discuss next week.
