Tag: wikipedia

  • Nighttrain – Hallo Bimmelbahn

    The song Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce has been taking the world by storm for weeks. The video is loaded with tons of artists including Pharell and Kanye West. Duck Sauce is DJ’s Armand van Helden and A-trak and like the title DJ suggests, apart from making records themselves, they like to spin other people’s tunes too.

    So it should come as no surprise that Barbra Streisand is literally sampled from Boney M’s 1979 disco hit Gotta go Home with a few added beats, scratches, sounds and of course the ‘Barbra Streisand’ sample. You’d think that was the end of it, but no.

    Gotta go home is in fact a cover of a German song Hallo Bimmelbahn from 1973 by a band called Nighttrain. The original song already includes the ‘woohoohoo’ and same notes as the Boney M. version minus some steel drums and vocals. The same elements Barbra Streisand leans on.

    But how did some German song about a train who took some guy’s love away end up as a disco song about going to a sunny beach? Simple; Boney M., despite being headed by Caribbean singers, was in fact based in Germany and the product of German producer  Frank Farian who undoubtedly figured a more internationalised cover of Hallo Bimmelbahn would be more successful. Frank Farian was also responsible for the ill-fated band Milli Vanilli, by the way.

    So, a German song about a train, became an English song about heading for Caribbean islands and that in turn became a dance song with a video celebrating the diversity New York. Here’s Hallo Bimmelbahn by Nighttrain (though I dare you not to say “Barbra Streisand” throughout the song):

  • Björk – Crying

    For many posts I rely on the site whosampled.com as a reliable source, but I also give back to the site to help improve it. Recently, three entries I made (all Björk-related I might add) got approved and I want to talk about one of them.

    You may have noticed I take the definition of sampling quite broad, from literally using a fragment of a recording to taking a small ‘idea’ from a song and making it your own. In 2000 the Queens of the Stone Age did just that. When they released the song Better Living Through Chemistry, there’s one part of it that may seem familiar.

    Although most of the song is an original work, the lyric “There’s no one here, and people every where, you’re on your own” that serves as a chorus in the song, comes directly from a track of Björk’s album Debut from 1993; the song Crying. In that song it isn’t the chorus, but it leads up to it.  The Queens of the Stone age creatively re-engineered it into a completely different song and put it to good use.

  • Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground

    Sometimes I use this weekly column as an excuse to point out a song I love. The Sneaker Pimps scored a few hits in the mid-nineties. Most notable of those is the song 6 underground from 1996. The song itself leans heavily on a sample from the soundtrack of the 1964 film Goldfinger by James Bond-composer John Barry, however it’s not the epic main-theme from Goldfinger that featured Shirley Bassey.

    The other prominent sample is the “a 1-2, a 1-2”. That comes from De La Soul’s Breakadawn from 1993 and that track contains a ton of samples: A Quiet Storm (1975) by Smokey Robinson, Sang and Dance by the Bar-Kay’s  (1970), I can’t help it (1979) by Michael Jackson and Yes We Can Can (1973) by the Pointer Sisters. Of course the irony here is that the Sneaker Pimps used a tiny part of the lyrics of that song that De La Soul had written themselves.

  • The Roof Is On Fire

    Usually a famous sample gets used over and over again by a range of artists, but occasionally, multiple samples from the same track find their way into very different tracks by other people. Take Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three’s classic hip hop track from 1984: The Roof is on Fire.

    If I say “the roof is on fire” you’ll either chant along with the original, sing the mopey version in Fire Water Burn by the Bloodhound Gang from 1997, bounce to the 1998 song “Follow the Leader” by the Soca Boys, remember you danced to the 1989 dance track The roof is on fire by Westbam (which features a ton of other samples too), you may have headbanged to Sway by Coal Chamber from 1997 or if you’re really hardcore you remember Atari Teenage Riot using the lyrics in their 1999 track Anarchy 999. That or you heard the lines “the roof is on fire, we don’t need the water, let the motherfucker burn” in any other song that the Wiki article on the song mentions.

    And that’s kinda ironic, since The Roof Is On Fire was actually the B-side of the single that was intended as a hit song: Request Line. You may recognise the intro to that track as the same as that to Missy Elliot’s Work It from 2002. Somehow the simple but effective lyrics of the B-side found its way into pop culture and became just as standard for MC’s as “put your hands up for Detroit“.

    Even more ironic is the odd’s you will know yet another sample from The Roof is on Fire even though it completely ignores the famous lyrics involving lack of a fire department. Hey Girl Hey Boy by the Chemical Brothers from 1999 directly samples the opening of this original version of The Roof is on Fire.
    So hey girls and hey boys, we don’t need no water despite that The Roof is on Fire:

  • Technotronic: how to sample yourself too

    I’ve talked about clone songs; when artists copy the style and sound of a song without using the actual notes and lyrics, for quick financial gain because of instant-recognition by the audience. Taking that up a notch is when it’s not other artists borrowing the sound, but the same artist makes nearly the same song twice.

    True, most artists have a recognisable ‘sound’. You can instantly recognise a U2 song, even when Bono isn’t singing. You might notice a gradual change in that sound making it easier to discern a song from the 80’s or 90’s. But most people will argue it’s not the same songs, unless you really hate the artist.

    But some times when an artist scores one hit single, the pressure is on (usually from the record company) to replicate that success and as fast as possible too. In the rush, the same song that brought success earlier is grabbed, some notes are rearranged and some new lyrics are written and hey presto the new hit single that sounds very recognisable.

    A very good example of this are Technotronic, because they didn’t do it just once but twice. Technotronic is a Belgian producer Jo Bogaert and an assortment of rappers who have lended their vocals for the tracks. In 1989 the hit Pump up the Jam came out of nowhere. For the video they used a girl to lip sync over Ya Kid K‘s vocals. Interestingly though a year before in 1988 one of the grand masters of house music, Farley Jackmaster Funk, released the track, The Acid Life. Undeniably, the music from Pump up the Jam is borrowed heavily from The Acid Life and should be considered ‘The Original’.

    Since Pump up the Jam did so well, a string of single was released in 1990. The first two following Pump up the Jam were Get Up! and This Beat is Technotronic. If you listen to those three songs in sequence and ignore the lyrics, you notice the instrumentation, the buildup, nearly everything is identical. So much so, that there’s a video on YouTube that is labelled as Pump up the Jam but is ‘clearly’ Get Up! . And even though This Beat is Technotronic contains a male vocalist, you can still hear a female singer sing ‘Get Up’ in the song. Confusing innit?

    With the track Spin That Wheel, there finally became some variation in the music, but Technotronic was now named Hi Tek 3 (same vocalists, same producer). When they went back to using Technotronic, they finally used a totally different sounding song: Rocking over the Beat (all still in 1990!). But by now, Technotronics triumph parade was over. Technotronic has kept releasing singles well until 2005, including a Megamix and a remix of their Greatest Hits every few years. Or should I say Greatest Hit?

    Still, a lot of artist are considered one hit wonders. At least Technotronic became a one hit wonder with three songs, including this one: Technotronic – Pump up the Jam:

  • Mis-Teeq vs. Jim Bakkum – This Scandalous Love is Not Real

    Today a real whodunnit mystery in the series The Origin of Samples that seems to be forgotten by the internet, judging by the fact I can find very little info about this minor scandal in the world of pop music.

    In March 2003 R&B trio Mis-Teeq released the first single off their second album. The single was Scandalous (wiki) and was produced by the Stargate production team, who are also responsible for a ton of hits by Rihanna, Lindsey Lohan, Beyoncé and Ne-Yo. The song went on to become Mis-Teeq’s the biggest hit.

    Also in March 2003, the final of the first Dutch edition of Idols is held. The contestant coming in second is Jim Bakkum, who then still used ‘Jim’ as his artist name. Despite being the loser, he is quickly signed to Wilde Productions (owned by Phil Wilde, one of the creators of 2Unlimited) and releases a a few singles and an album Impressed. In July 2003 he releases his second single This Love is Real on BMG records.

    The song this Love Is Real is a cover of CB Milton‘s version of the song on his 1998 album From Here to There on Byte Records (owned by one of the men behind 2Unlimited: Jean-Paul De Coster). CB Milton got most famous for his songs Send me an Angel and It’s a Loving Thing produced by the guys behind 2Unlimited. CB Milton’s version was never released as a single, nor was the album it was on a major commercial success. The writers credited on the CB Milton version are Peter Bauwens and Phil Wilde of the production team Soundsational … and of Wilde Productions, the men behind 2Unlimited. On the Jim version Joey Balin is also credited as one of the writers, besides Wilde and Bauwens. If you listen to the CB Milton version, you’ll notice only the lyrics were covered.

    If you listen to Scandalous and This Love is Real (by Jim), you’ll notice than other than a slight pitch change, the instrumentation is nearly identical. In fact, this mashup might convince you:

    This scandalous love is not real (Mis-Teeq vs Jim) by The Nevis DJ

    So it looks like not only are the lyrics not original in the Jim track, neither is the music. Then again, if the music industry wants to quickly push out a hit single for their newest star baby, I guess this is what happens.  Now I do remember when this ‘scandal’ made it into the Dutch press back in 2003 someone did indeed find a link between the writers of both songs and that indeed someone had recycled some one’s idea, but nowhere on the web can I find a record of this. Tips are welcome. For now this remains a whodunnit ‘mis-teeq’ mystery.

  • Chi-Lites – Are You My Woman

    In 1970 a soul group from Chicago called the Chi-Lites (formerly the Hi-Lites with an added C from Chicago) released the single Are You My woman (Tell Me So). Though it did chart in the US, the Chi-Lites wouldn’t score any big hits till a year later.

    In the early days 90’s, DJ Polo dug up the the track in 1992 for #1 With a Bullet by Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo featuring Big Daddy Kane. The sample serves no greater purpose in the track and again went mostly unnoticed.

    It didn’t crash into the main-stream until the Beyonce & Jay-Z collaboration Crazy in Love was released in 2003. It became a huge hit and as always that’s followed by a string of very differing covers like those from The Puppini Sisters, Anthony & The Johnsons, Tracy Bonham and there’s even a version of the Beyonce song with Mandarin vocals instead of Jay-Z.

    Oddly though, all of them usually mimic the melody from the original Are you My Woman (Tell Me So) by the The Chi-Lites:

  • All the same beat

    Following my post earlier today, I got a reply from a reader who pointed this out to me:

    Three tracks, three artists, one producer, same song.

    All three tracks produced by the same producer and they line up perfectly. Of course this is nothing new, Linkin Park has gotten spanked for making the same song over and over again. Can you call it a clone song if it’s the same artist?

    My father’s father often commented on my dad’s music that it was all ‘the same beat’. My dad has commented today’s music is all the same beat. Maybe it’s a sign I’m getting old that I’m noticing this too. But then again, when had pop music ever not been about recycling the same ideas over and over again? Right, Warhol?

  • Gianfranco & Gian Piero Reverberi – Nel Cimitero Di Tucson

    In 2006 the duo Gnarls Barkley (DJ Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo) released their first and biggest hit single: Crazy. Due to the immense popularity of the song, it soon got covered by countless artists (even a lovely theremin version). Most notable of the covers however is the version by The Violent Femmes in 2008. Notable because Gnarls Barkley covered the song Gone Daddy Gone by the Violent Femmes also in 2006. So they covered each other’s songs!

    DJ Danger Mouse got a lot of attention in 2004 when he released the Grey Album, a mashup between the Beatles album nicknamed’ ‘the White Album‘ and Jay-Z’s Black Album. So it comes as no surprise that even though the lyrics on Crazy are original, the music is sampled.

    In 1968 the film Django, Prepare a Coffin aka Preparati La Bara! aka Viva Django (not to be confused  with the rip-off Viva! Django from 1971) was released as a unofficial rip-off sequel to the film Django (1966). It was not uncommon in spaghetti western days to release a film that ripped title and main characters from other popular films as a cash in. The score however is original and written by brothers Gianfranco & Gian Piero Reverberi. You can hear a hint of the sample in the opening credits (which visually and musically are a rip-off from the style of James Bond opening credits), but if you fast forward to 2:30, you can hear Crazy in the original song titled Nel Cimitero Di Tucson (click here for just the song):

  • REM – Everybody Hurts

    I talked about clone songs a while back. There is yet another example from Dutch pop music that illustrates this point well.

    Around 1998/1999 car-brand Mitsubishi aired a TV-commercial that featured music by a temporarily formed duo called City to City. The band name references to the fact that both band members (Maarten van Praag and Sandro van Breemen) have a city in their last name. Not only is their band name quite appropriate for a car commercial, so is their first and only hit single: The Road Ahead (Miles of the Unknown).

    But if you listen to the song, the feeling creeps up on you, that you’ve heard this music before. Even the references to roads and cars somehow strike familiar. And you would be right. You might remember a video that (ironically) does not have a wide open road, but a traffic jam as its setting: R.E.M.‘s Everybody Hurts from 1993. Listen to both songs and you’ll notice: same instruments (especially the use of strings and percussion on the opening), same build-up, same mood, even almost the same melodies.

    The single The Road Ahead topped the Dutch charts for 4 weeks and was #4 of best sold singles in 1999. The band City to City won the Edison (Dutch equivalent of a Grammy) for Best National Newcomer for that year. They released two more singles which failed to achieve any similar result, before City to City effectively split in 2002 when one of the two members left the band. The song The Road Ahead still shows up in the annual Top 2000 (best songs of all time list, compiled with votes from the listeners of Radio 2), usually somewhere between #500 and #900.

    Here’s City to City – The Road Ahead:

    And just for comparison, here’s R.E.M. – Everybody Hurts: