Shalamar’s string of poppy dance-soul hits began in 1979 with “Take That to the Bank”; later that year, “The Second Time Around” hit the Top Ten. Throughout the early ’80s the group were favorites on the U.S. R&B scene, as well as scoring a number of British hit singles. Jody Watley left the group in 1982 and went on to stardom as a solo act.
Chic’s sound was anchored by the scratchy, James Brown-style rhythm guitar of Nile Rodgers and the indelible, widely imitated (sometimes outright stolen) bass lines of Bernard Edwards. Chic’s distinctive approach not only resulted in some of the finest dance singles of their time, but also helped create a template for urban funk, dance-pop, and even hip-hop in the post-disco era.
“Good Times“, easily the most sampled disco bass line of all times
Beastie Boys: A.W.O.L.
Blondie: Rapture
Boogie Down Productions: 13 and Good
Chubb Rock: Just the Two of Us
Club House: SuperGood
College Boyz: Underground Blues
Dan the Automator: Music to be Murdered By
De la Soul: A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays’
Digital Underground: Doowutchyalike
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: The Reverend
DJ Shadow: Basic Mega-Mix
Father MC: Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
Fugees: Refugees on the Mic
Furious Five: Birthday Party
G.P. WU: Hit Me with That S–t
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
I try to be as complete as possible whenever I research a sample source artist/band (that is why James Brown and Barry White are going to take me some time). This of course implies a lot of Googlistics, as you might expect. But there are also a couple of sites that make my life a bit easier. Information on artists
Good sources of information (biography, discography) are allmusic.com, ArtistDirect UBL and MSN Entertainment. Yahoo! Launch is less complete, Minnie Riperton is apparently not even an artist worthy of a biography. MusicMatch has great info too, but only through their MusicMatch Jukebox (and not copy/pastable ) Information on sample sources
The best source I have found up till now is the-breaks.com. A lot of its content is more or less copied on www.vinyl.com. For the isolated artist (sampling or sampled) you can be so lucky to find a list as complete as Gangstarr Samples. The rest is inventive Googling. A search for “Barry White Sample” gives back 183 hits. “Sample of James Brown“: 45 hits. You get the idea…
The O’Jays‘ first album on Philadelphia International Records, Backstabbers, was a masterpiece, highlighted by McFadden & Whitehead’s master composition, ‘Backstabbers’. The haunting song with the great intro became a monster hit, and was followed by the even bigger ‘Love Train’. Songs like ‘For The Love of Money’, ‘Livin’ For the Weekend’, and the classic ‘Use Ta Be My Girl’ all appeared to be a year or two ahead of what everyone else was doing, and made each new O’Jays release an event. And, as the vehicle for Gamble & Huff’s social statements, the group released some of the most intelligent, relevant album cuts of the decade.
Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and ’80s, Roy Ayers‘ reputation is now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. In 1970 he formed the Roy Ayers Ubiquity, which featured such players as Sonny Fortune, Billy Cobham, Omar Hakim, and Alphonse Mouzon.
EMI/Virgin provides a great series of double CDs: the “Sampled” collection. They contain the original versions of songs that have been sampled in recent songs. Famous stuff like “Back Stabbers (O’Jays)” as well as lesser known pearls like “Take Yo’ Praise (Camille Yarbrough)”. The first installment was released in 2001 (re-released in 2004) and they are at #4 now. For some reason, the #2 is hard to find at Amazon or other shops. Obviously, I have them all.
One of the few white groups to cross the color line and achieve success and credibility playing funk, with their tight, fiery sound also belying their Scottish heritage, evoking American R&B hotbeds like Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia instead. In 1974 The Average White Band topped the American pop charts with the Arif Mardin-produced instrumental “Pick Up the Pieces.”
Born in Chicago on November 8, 1947. Stevie Wonder agreed to co-produce Minnie Riperton’s 1974 album Perfect Angel, which contained the international blockbuster “Lovin’ You”.
“Loving you“, probably one of the most romantic songs ever, with little birds tweeting and Minnie’s etheric voice
The Orb: A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld
Born on September 30, 1954, in Los Angeles, keyboardist-singer-songwriter-arranger-musical director Patrice Rushen has had an outstanding career with several Top Ten R&B hits, including “Haven’t You Heard,” “Forget Me Nots,” “Feels So Real,” and “Watch Out”.
“Forget Me Nots” - probably her best known hit single, with the funky synth bass and the high pizzicato strings
Ever since I heard Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight, with the bass line from Chic’s Good Times, I’ve been a sucker for creative sampling. Apart from the occasional home-brew sampling experiment, I also like to collect original songs of well known samples. James Brown, Diana Ross, Patrice Rushen, Cymande, … I’ve just got to have them on CD or vinyl.
So here I want to talk about the sampled and the samplers, the originals and the re-users, sometimes focusing on a certain artist, a genre, a trend or an example of exceptional skill. If I can find a way of legally and affordably offering sound bites, I will do that too!
I was going to start with Stevie Wonder, but eventhough I have over 30 covers of songs of his, I still have to do some research on actual sampling. The drums in Superstition are so cool, they must have been used somewehere.
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