For as long as pop music has been recorded, it’s been sampled.
Sampling – the word used to describe the re-use of pre-recorded material in another recording – has been a feature of music for almost 100 years.
The history of modern pop is littered with songs that have paid tribute to the past by using the best bits of old songs to boost the popularity of new ones.
Everyone’s done it, from Jay Z and Kanye West to Robbie Williams and The Beatles, and will continue to use samples for as long as pop music exists.
Sometimes, the sample is so obvious that people recognise it instantly, but on other occasions it takes a little digging into history to find where those famous clips came from.
So, here are a bunch of tracks you probably didn’t know contained some sneaky samples all this time…
We Can’t Stop – Miley Cyrus (2013)
11 years might have passed but as a society we’re probably only just recovering from watching Miley Cyrus transform overnight from a child of Disney to songs like We Can’t Stop.
The controversial R&B hit was such a successful rebrand for Miley that it landed top three on both sides of the Atlantic and sold almost 10 million copies in the UK and US alone.
But did you know its main hook – the ‘La-da-di da-di, we like to party’ – was taken from a song that was released almost a decade before Miley was even born?
For that part, we have to thank Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick, whose beatbox-heavy track La Di Da Di from 1985 was the big inspiration for one of 2013’s biggest hits.
La Di Da Di has also been sampled by the likes of Robbie Williams, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Eyed Peas, Pusha T, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Will Smith, and many, many, many more.
Miley’s singing here is more of an interpolation than a sample but we’ll blur the definitions in this article to just make things easier here.
Listen to the original here.
Whatcha Say – Jason Derulo (2009)
One of the biggest debut singles of the 2000s, Jason Derulo’s Whatcha Say sent him to number one in America and landed him a top three hit in the UK.
Even now, 15 years and several smash singles later, Whatcha Say is arguably still Jason’s signature tune, and he probably owes a lot of that success to that iconic chorus.
That chorus was provided by singer-songwriter and experimental musician Imogen Heap – her 2005 song Hide and Seek had its entire bridge section lifted for Whatcha Say’s chorus.
Hide and Seek didn’t even make the top 100 in the UK when it was originally released, but its use during a pivotal scene in US drama series The O.C. – and the numerous parodies of that scene – introduced it to the public at large.
As of 2024, Hide and Seek is certified Silver in the UK having shifted 200,000 copies in 20 years. In 2017, Imogen performed Hide and Seek live at the One Love Manchester concert to a crowd of 50,000 people.
Listen to the original here.
Gangsta’s Paradise – Coolio (1995)
Gangsta’s Paradise was one of the biggest hits of the entire decade in the 1990s – the song made Coolio a household name overnight.
Hitting number one basically everywhere in the world – including in the UK for two weeks – Gangsta’s Paradise eventually sold over two million copies in Britain, making it one of the country’s biggest selling songs of all time.
But for its chorus and iconic string section, we have to go back almost 20 years to the legend that is Stevie Wonder and his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life.
Pastime Paradise, which was never released a single, fell into Coolio’s hands and it wasn’t long before a superhit was made – Stevie received writing credits on Gangsta’s Paradise.
Coolio sadly died in September 2022, aged just 59 – exactly 46 years to the day that Songs in the Key of Life was released around the world.
Listen to the original here.
Real Girl – Mutya Buena (2007)
Mutya Buena needed something big to launch her solo career after leaving Sugababes in 2005, and that something big came along in early 2007.
Real Girl was celebrated for its blending of contemporary R&B sounds with the pop soul of the 1970s and reached number two in the UK, as well as hitting the top 10 in several countries around Europe.
However, one of the writing credits on the song would have no doubt caused a bit of surprise, with 90s singer and guitarist Lenny Kravitz first on the list of writers.
That’s because Real Girl borrowed its instrumental from Lenny’s song, which was released in 1991 and shot all the way to number two in America will going Silver in the UK.
Listen to the original here.
If It’s Lovin That You Want – Rihanna (2005)
It’s hard to believe, but once upon a time Rihanna wasn’t one of the biggest names in pop music history.
She was just 17 years old taking her first steps in the industry back in 2005 when If It’s Lovin That You Want was released as a follow-up to debut single Pon De Replay.
At the time, it wasn’t deemed a big success, but thanks to TikTok the song has taken on a second life, eventually being certified Gold and Silver in the US and UK respectively.
And she can thank Boogie Down Productions for those figures, whose song The Bridge Is Over – released back in 1987 – provided the backing for one of the song’s catchiest parts.
The lyric ‘Di-di-di, di-di-da, di-di-di, da-di-dey’ was originally sung by BDP’s rapper KRS One during the groundbreaking song almost 20 years earlier.
Listen to the original here.
Paper Planes – M.I.A. (2008)
You’ll know this one even if you think you don’t. ‘All I wanna do [gunshot] [gunshot] [gunshot] [gunshot] and a [cash register] and take your moneeeyyy.’See, you know it!
Well, M.I.A.’s Paper Planes wasn’t intended to be quite the smash hit it became, but it soon found itself inside the top five in the US and selling over a million copies in the UK.
And the entire thing was built off the back of a sample from The Clash, specifically their 1982 song Straight to Hell. The opening guitar lines from that song were lifted by M.I.A. to create one of the most iconic hits of the 2000s.
Shortly after its success, Paper Planes was itself sampled by T.I. and Jay Z for their song Swagga Like Us, which became a top five hit in the same year as M.I.A.’s breakout.
Listen to the original here.
Toxic – Britney Spears (2004)
The sample in Britney’s Toxic was so cleverly hidden that many people still have absolutely no idea that it’s even there, let alone where it came from.
For the origins of Toxic, you’ve got to go back to 1981 and the Hindi film Ek Duuje Ke Liye (which means Made for Each Other in English).
A song recorded for that film by legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, titled Tere Mere Beech Mein (Between You and Me), features a string section in its opening 30 seconds that sounds wonderful but doesn’t sound anything like Toxic.
And yet, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnbeg, along with Cathy Dennis and Henrik Jonback, took just two split second samples from Tere Mere Beech Mein to provide the iconic backing.
Toxic was a huge hit around the world, proving that killer samples can come from absolutely anywhere.
Here’s how the sample was put together.
On the Floor – J-Lo & Pitbull (2011)
One of the biggest hits of 2011 has roots almost 30 years into its past, with J-Lo and Pitbull calling on a Bolivian composition to get On the Floor up the charts.
Reaching number one in the UK and the top three in America, On the Floor is one of J-Lo’s biggest hits to date and seemed to play on every radio station throughout the entirety of 2011.
And for all that success, they’ve got to thank Bolivian folk group Los Kjarkas for their song Llorando Se Fue (in English, They Left in Tears).
Listen to the original here.
My Name Is – Eminem (1999)
Eminem burst onto the scene in the late 1990s and took absolutely no time to get started, with his debut single My Name Is causing a ruckus as it reached number two on the UK charts.
But did you know that, of all people, comedy pop duo Chas and Dave were responsible for its iconic instrumental sample?
That’s because My Name Is was based largely on the 1975 song I Got The… by Labi Siffre – taken from his album Remember My Song.
Chas and Dave provided electric and bass guitar parts to Labi’s song, which was never released as a single, but was spotted by Eminem’s producers over 20 years later. (It was also used in an episode of Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul.
So, in a way, Chas and Dave are responsible for Eminem’s breakout success.
Listen to the original here.