12 Songs You Didn’t Know Were Sampled

It has become a far too common saying nowadays that modern music all sounds the same. With this often being taken further with people frequently spouting that only a small number of notes are even used any more in popular music anymore.

This is exemplified in the song “4 Chords” by The Axis of Awesome.

These musical similarities have even sometimes come to a head with multimillion-dollar lawsuits if express permission by the music label is not given beforehand. Looking at you, “Blurred Lines”.

However, in some cases two songs sounding alike is more than mere coincidence or inspiration. Sometimes songs are torn apart and reworked into new songs, sung by newer more “in the spotlight” artists, giving them new life in ways their creators never imagined. Sometimes these samples, aren’t even from other songs.

Here are just some popular songs that you didn't know used the work of others.

Fans of both these songs may have noticed something very familiar with the openings of both, with each often being confused for the other.

This, as you may have guessed, is no coincidence. The fact is, that Rapper’s Delight straight up stole this melody from Good Times and used it without permission. This led to a highly sensationalised lawsuit between the producer of Rapper’s Delight, Sylvia Rogerson, and Chic’s Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards over copyright infringement.

This infringement was a result of the bassline used in each, which was agreed in court that they were too similar to not have been taken from Good Times. This eventually concluded with Chic gaining a writing credit.

Sampling later became a mainstay in many newer rap songs.