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This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

Following

Sampled Up

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A counterpart of Covered Up when song number 1 gets sampled in song number 2, and song number 2 becomes so famous it eclipses song number 1. Maybe not to the point that people forget about the sampling, but to the extent that most listeners would probably draw the connection between the two when hearing the original.

This shouldn't be confused with interpolation - sampling involves taking a chunk directly out of one song, whereas interpolation means replaying it on your own instruments.

A variant of Older Than They Think; as Sampling is big in hip-hop and rap, most fans are young and often they aren't aware of the song being sampled. Unless they check The-breaks.com or WhoSampled.com. If song 2 is a parody of song 1, then it's suffered Parody Displacement.

Examples:

  • Quick, anyone know "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons? You should recognize the break...it's only been used in nearly every song that uses samples. Notably, entire genres have been birthed from the Amen break - jungle, breakbeat hardcore, drum & bass, and gabba, to name a few.
    • Ironically, "Amen, Brother" itself sort of has some samples as well. It's an uptempo Instrumental cover of the Gospel Music song "Amen", clearly based on the hit version by The Impressions. But for their arrangement, The Winstons basically took the melody of "Amen" and grafted it onto a Cover Version of another Impressions hit, "We're a Winner", even copying the opening fanfare of "We're a Winner" for the open of "Amen, Brother."
  • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown has also been sampled literally thousands of times.
  • Similar to the two examples above, "Ashley's Roachclip" by the Soul Searchers itself is an obscure funk tune. One single bar from this song, however, made it to world fame as the drum beat of "Girl You Know It's True" by Milli Vanilli. Or "Unbelievable" by EMF. Or "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" by PM Dawn. Or wherever else you've heard it first. The first song to sample it was "Paid in Full" by Eric B. & Rakim.
  • The drum track to Billy Squier's "The Big Beat" has been sampled over 280 times, most notably in "Fix Up Look Sharp" by Dizzee Rascal, "Get Down" from FIFA 14, and "99 Problems" by Jay-Z.
  • One Beavis And Butthead episode showed them watching the video of "Super Freak" by Rick James. Upon hearing the main riff, one comments, "Hey, it's Hammer time!".
  • Quick, what do you think of first: James Mtume's "Juicy Fruit", or The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy"?
    • Okay, here's another one: The Isley Brothers' "Between the Sheets", or Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa"? Whitney Houston's "One of Those Days"? Or Gwen Stefani's "Luxurious"?
    • Leon Haywood's "I Wanna Do Something Freaky to You" or Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' But a G Thang"?
    • Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out", or Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy's "Mo Money Mo Problems"?
  • "Security of the First World" was just a quick interlude on Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back between two more aggressive tracks. Lenny Kravitz then sampled the interlude's opening for Madonna's "Justify My Love". Later, when other artists sampled the interlude, like Insane Clown Posse did for their song "Bowling Balls", reviewers believed that it was the Madonna song being sampled, not "Security of the First World".
    • There are probably rap fans who are familliar with the pummeling riffs of "She Watch Channel Zero?!" without knowing they were sampled from Slayer's "Angel of Death".
      • And KMFDM fans who only know that riff from "Godlike."
    • Also, ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" was sampled in The Tamperer's "Hammer to the Heart" and Madonna's "Hung Up".
  • There are at least a few persons to whom this confusion happened between Queen/David Bowie's "Under Pressure" and Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby".
  • Eminem:
    • Duh-dun. (tsk) Duh-dun. (tsk) Duh-dun. (tsk) Duh-dun (daaah-dah-dahdah...) No, that wasn't "My Name Is", it's sampled from Labi Siffre's "I Got The...".
      • Joss Stone references it when her live performances of Siffre's song get to that riff: "I promise I won't rap, I promise. But it's so tempting!" Even on the recorded version of her cover, she spends the instrumental break giggling, to give the listener time to have fun imagining a peroxide blond Midwestern white boy rapping about his mother not having big enough breasts to breastfeed him before returning to the gorgeous soul love song of the original.
      • The "My Name Is" sample was also sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan six years earlier in "Can It Be All So Simple". Beck nearly sampled it, but was beaten to it by the release of "My Name Is" and scrapped the production.
    • "Stan" didn't just sample and outperform Dido's "Thank You", but also bolstered that song's success, and by extension Dido's career. She was thrilled to have been sampled by Eminem and appreciative of the Colbert Bump, appearing with him live in his UK performances, and appearing in the video as Stan's pregnant girlfriend.
    • Depending on your audience, "Dream On" is just the basis for "Sing for the Moment".
    • "Like Toy Soldiers" by Eminem is based on "Toy Soldiers" by Martika, just hip-hopped enough to make a good theme song for John Cena.
    • "Crazy In Love" samples a pitched up snippet of Heart (Band).
    • "Untitled" samples "You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore.
    • Revival garnered criticism for overly obvious samples, like "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett on "Reminds Me", and "Zombie" by Cranberries on "In Your Head".
  • Daft Punk are all over this trope, borrowing from lots of funky songs.
    • "Cola Bottle Baby" was even meta-sampled: originally by Edwin Birdsong, which was used by Daft Punk in "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", which was used by Kanye West in "Stronger" note 
    • The intro of "I Love You More" by George Duke became the basis of "Digital Love".
    • "Can You Imagine?" by Little Anthony and The Imperials was used in "Crescendolls".
    • "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?" by Barry Manilow was used in "Superheroes".
    • Sister Sledge's "Il Macquillage Lady" had its synth bass and guitar line reused in "Aerodynamic".
    • "More Spell on You" by Eddie Johns provides the basis of "One More Time".
    • "Break Down for Love" by Tavares was chopped and rearranged for "High Life".
    • Their co-production with Todd Edwards, "Face to Face", boasts some particularly inspired microsampling from Electric Light Orchestra's "Evil Woman".
    • "Robot Rock" uses a comparatively straightforward, unaltered sample of Breakwater's "Release the Beast".
    • "Contact" — the only track on Random Access Memories that contains a sample — uses the intro from The Sherbs' "We Ride Tonight"
  • Funk and Soul songs are an entire sub-category here.
    • Curtis Mayfield has had this a bit. Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" was a blatant lift from "Move On Up". Eminem slurred the chorus of "Pusherman" for "I'm Shady". "Eddie You Should Know Better" was sampled for Snoop Dogg's "G'z Up Hoes Down".
      • Kanye West also put a dance/electro beat behind a sample from "Little Child Running Wild" to create "Flashing Lights"
    • P-Funk. So many times. Honorary mention to Dr. Dre, who's made an entire career out of swiping P-Funk riffs and slowing them down.
  • Try to count how many times people have used "Good Times" by Chic.
    • Technically, the only direct copynote  of it is "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang (and Brazilian rap "2345meia78"), but more than a few people have ripped it off. A few were justified (Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", which emerged after bassist John Deacon spent time with Chic in the studio) and others really blatant (Vaughan Mason & Crew's "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll"). Then Jimmy Spicer capitalized on the latter song by sampling it in order to do a parody of "Rappers Delight." Meanwhile, most people don't know that The Ketchups' "Aserejé" is based on "Rapper's Delight" (and thus, "Good Times" as well).
      • Interestingly, there's a large part of the original recording of "Good Times" where nothing except the bassline plays. As such, Chic themselves now almost always insert a few of Sugarhill Gang's lyrics at that point, when performing live.
  • Play "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge to anyone who grew up in The '90s, and for the first couple bars they may be expecting it to become "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith.
    • Will Smith is a serial offender. "Will 2K" uses "Rock the Casbah", and you'll never guess the name of the song he sampled for "Just the Two of Us"...
    • Don't forget "Wild Wild West", sampling Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" and Kool Moe Dee's song with the same name. The video actually features both of them in it, so at least he gave them their props. Not to mention co-writing credits.
    • Or "Miami", based off The Whispers' "The Beat Goes On''.
    • And "Men in Black", which samples the bassline and interpolates the chorus melody of Patrice Rushen's "Forget Me Nots", which was also sampled in George Michael's "Fastlove". Both Will and George's interpretations were Number One hits in the UK.
    • He even did this as the Fresh Prince (accompanied by DJ Jazzy Jeff), sampling the theme to I Dream of Jeannie in "Girls Ain't Nothin' But Trouble."
    • Also, his 1991 hit "Summertime" samples a loop from Kool and The Gang's "Summer Madness". The lyrics include a couple mentions of "summer madness" as a Shout-Out.
  • The Fugees' cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" is a bizarre combination of this and Cover Version, as the beat and sitar riff are sampled from "Bonita Applebum" by A Tribe Called Quest.
    • To make things even more confusing, the beat and sitar riff from "Bonita Applebum" were already sampled from Little Feat's "Fool Yourself" and Rotary Connection's "Memory Band", respectively.
    • The Fugees used Enya's "Boadicea" in their hit "Ready or Not" and they were nearly sued for it because they sampled it without Enya's permission. It was later used "I Don't Wanna Know" by Mario Winans, in which Enya is credited as a featuring artist. As with the "Forget Me Not" example above, both uses of the sample were Number One hits in the UK.note 
    • "Ready or Not"’s chorus was itself sampled from the Delfonics’ "Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide from Love)". Genius.com calls it "a hip-hop spin on a soul classic", which many younger fans probably didn’t realize.
  • "Groove is in the Heart" by Deee-Lite. That funky bass riff? "Bring Down the Birds" by Herbie Hancock, from the Blowup soundtrack.
    • Actually, the whole song is based off a plethora of samples. Examples including: Vernon Burch's "Get Up", Ray Barretto's "Right On", Ralph MacDonald's "Jam on the Groove", Billy Preston's "Uptight", The Headhunters' "God Made Me Funky", and even the theme song of Green Acres (the i-i-i-i-i-i).
  • More Herbie Hancock examples:
    • "All Nite (Don't Stop)" by Janet Jackson. That funky guitar riff? "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" by Herbie Hancock.
    • "Sanctuary" by Madonna. That ethnic flute melody? "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock.
    • US3's "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" has that name for a good reason. The piano and brass part? "Cantaloupe Island" by Herbie Hancock.
    • If you grew up in the '90s, you're more likely to know Sex-O-Sonique(AKA Full Intention)'s 1997 house hit "I Thought It Was You" than the 1978 Herbie song of the same name that the Title Drop was sampled from. Same goes for the spoken-word clips taken from the '70s UK TV series The Sweeney.
    • Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones (Part II)" samples his 1969 song "Jessica".
  • The persistent guitar that backed Stevie Nicks's "Edge of Seventeen" was reused for Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious". Played by Stevie herself in the video, no less.
  • Several of Rihanna's songs are based off samples:
    • How long will it take before Rihanna's "SOS" eclipses Soft Cell's "Tainted Love"?
    • Or, for that matter, before "Shut Up and Drive" is better known than New Order's "Blue Monday"? Only you have the power to decide. Choose wisely.
    • Both songs sample Covered Up versions, as "Tainted Love" wasn't originally by Soft Cell, and "Shut Up and Drive" actually samples Orgy's version.
    • "S&M" is based off the bassline of Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant". Both songs are about sadomaschoism, so that figures.
    • "Don't Stop the Music" sampled much of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (particularly the line "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa"). In fact, both Rihanna and Michael were sued by Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango, as Michael admitted that the hook originated from his 1972 song "Soul Makossa" (settling out of court), though the case was dismissed.
  • Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" takes its riff from "Ma Baker" by Boney M..
  • Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch" (or the "do it like they do on the Discovery Channel" song) samples Pet Shop Boys' 1985 b-side "In the Night", or at the very least almost exactly duplicates the backing track.
  • In some circles, Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" has sampled up "Every Breath You Take."
  • Pras' "Ghetto Supastar" samples "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (and written by The Bee Gees).
    • The Bee Gees acknowledged this revival of their song on their 2001 Greatest Hits Album The Record, on which they sang a newly-recorded version of "Islands in the Stream" themselves – including one chorus where the lyrics changed to those of "Ghetto Supastar".
  • Kanye West sampled an instrumental from "Ammonia Avenue" by The Alan Parsons Project for his hit song "Heartless".
    • Another Kanye example: "Gold Digger" samples Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman", but depressingly few people know that. There's a reason why Jamie Foxx, fresh from an Oscar win for Ray, sings the melody.
    • "Power" is built out of samples - specifically of obscure disco band Continent No. 6's "Afromerica", a song called "It's Your Thing" by Cold Grits, and, most famously "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson. The remix samples "The Power" by Snap!
      • Kanye is basically the poster boy for sampling, although most of his tracks don't eclipse the original. For example, his "Diamonds (from Sierra Leone)" is more or less remembered than the original "Diamonds Are Forever" by Shirley Bassey. Or "Stronger" (minus the Harder, Better, and Faster(and the Cola Bottle.)).
  • Speaking of James Bond songs, there's also Robbie Williams' "Millennium" - a known Bond fan - sampling Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice" (the music video is even an Affectionate Parody of 007).
  • If you think the guitar riff from Janet Jackson's "Someone To Call My Lover" sounds vaguely familiar, hear America's "Ventura Highway" to realize just why it sounds vaguely familiar.
    • The chorus of "Someone to Call My Lover" uses "Gymnopédie No. 1", a classical piano piece by Erik Satie. it's played by a synth part that sounds like a chime.
    • Similarly, "All for You" samples Change's "The Glow of Love".
    • And "Rhythm Nation" takes from Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)."
    • "Got 'Til It's Gone" samples "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell.
    • Janet Jackson has also been on the receiving end of this: rapper Iyaz sampled "Again" for his song "Solo".
  • Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" from Jerry Rivera's "Amores Como el Nuestro" via Wyclef Jean’s “Dance Like This”. They're different genres and markets, so most people not knowing the original may be due to that. Hip-hop fans might recognize Rivera's track through its use in Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz's "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)", although that song is nowhere near as known as "Hips Don't Lie".
  • Although many performers have ripped off Luniz's classic "I Got 5 On It" (Puff Daddy and R Kelly got together to pinch this one, and bog-awful UK hip hoppers Big Brovaz had a go too), the track itself is built on at least three different samples, one being "Why You Treat Me So Bad?" by Club Nouveau.
  • Fatboy Slim. Everybody knows "Right Here, Right Now", "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Praise You". Nobody, however, knows "The Ashes, The Rain And I" by The James Gang, or "Sliced Tomatoes" by The Just Brothers, or even "Take Yo' Praise" by Camille Yarbrough. Unless they brought A Break From The Norm, which collects a load of the tracks together in their original form.
    • Norman really piles on the samples. "Praise You" alone crashes Camille Yarbrough's vocals next to a piano melody sampled from a rehearsal version of Hoyt Axton's "Captain America" (the one on this LP), the drums from Ruby's "Rock Me", a guitar riff lifted from a Disco version of "It's a Small World" (yes, no kidding), and the bridge also invites the Fender Rhodes electric piano melody of "Lucky Man" by the Steve Miller Band and the "Na, na, na, gonna have a good time!" part of the Fat Albert theme to the party.
    • Norman once admitted in an interview that in order to clear the samples used in "The Rockafeller Skank", he had to divide all the royalties among the four main songwriters he had borrowed from, and as a result he doesn't earn royalties from the song.
  • "Little Fluffy Clouds" is arguably The Orb's most famous track. It's a helluva lot more famous than the original "Electric Counterpoint (Fast)" by Steve Reich.
    • When the song came out, Alex Paterson also joked that people would be surprised if they found out the source of the drums, but he had been told not to by the record company because they wanted him to wait until after they'd cleared the samples to reveal their origin (this was shortly before Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc. made sampling harder), but it eventually was revealed that the drums were sampled from Harry Nilsson's "Jump in the Fire".
  • The bass line to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" is taken from post-punk group Liquid Liquid's "Cavern" (technically not sampled, since the backing track is the Sugar Hill house band playing it). Both songs actually came out the same year, but "White Lines" became much more famous, to the point where it's been often sampled itself.
  • An extremely rare video game example: "Work That Sucker To Death" by Xavier was used in the Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog CD boss theme. There's a reason few American gamers are aware of that.
    • Other Sonic the Hedgehog games use sampling too. In Sonic Rush, the track "Back 2 Back" uses the main melody of "Louie Louie" by Richard Berry.
    • Listen to the song "Stranger in Moscow" by Michael Jackson and you'll recognise the end credits theme for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Given that Michael Jackson composed music for Sonic 3, you might think that the song was sampled in the game, but it's actually the other way around - the tune from the game was sampled in the song.
  • Flo Rida's "In The Ayer" is much more famous than the song it sampled, Pretty Tony's "Jam The Box."
    • Helped by the original song using a Technology Marches On example, Flo Rida's "Right Round" might surpass Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (although this may not count as the original song is far from obscure). Unless one heard the song through the many, many YouTube Poops/crack videos that featured the original song accompanying a character spinning.
    • Flo Rida also had "Sugar", which samples Eiffel 65's "Blue". Like with "Right Round", the original song is well-known enough to likely disqualify it.
    • There's also a double (triple?) sampling: "Good Feeling", Pretty Lights' "Finally Moving", and Avicii's "Levels" all sample from Etta James' "Something’s Got a Hold on Me". It has been argued that "Good Feeling" specifically samples "Finally Moving", but it's unquestionable that "Good Feeling" was released to capitalize on the popularity of "Levels".
    • And the chorus of "I Cry" is interpolated from Brenda Russell's 80's hit "Piano in the Dark" (or its remix by the Bingo Players, "Cry (Just a Little)". When Flo Rida did the song at the 2012 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, someone named "Stacy" stood in for the chorus. Meanwhile, "Piano" was reissued due to the popularity of "I Cry".
  • Several of Pitbull's songs use sampled electro house basslines.
  • The reason the guitar riff to Beck's "Devil's Haircut" has such a 60's garage rock feel to it is it's taken from "I Can Only Give You Everything", by Van Morrison's 60's band Them. And "Jackass" does the same to their cover of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now Baby Blue".
  • Crazytown's hit "Butterfly" is primarily a loop of the Red Hot Chili Peppers instrumental "Pretty Little Ditty" over a hip hop beat. It can be kind of hard to hear that guitar and bass groove and not start thinking "come my lady, come come my lady..."
  • The Prodigy's "Firestarter" from The Fat of the Land is built around two samples: a guitar-and-drums loop from "S.O.S." by The Breeders and the girl's voice that sings "Hey! Hey! Hey!" from Art of Noise's Close (To The Edit). (The main lead guitar riff (the one in the intro) is, however, an original performance by guest guitarist Jim Davies.)
    • Another Prodigy track, "Smack My Bitch Up", is more recognizable than most of what it sampled: "Critical Beatdown" and "Give the Drummer Some" by the Ultramagnetic MC's (the latter being where the title comes from), "Funky Man" by Kool & the Gang, "In Memory Of" by Randy Weston, "House of Rising Funk" by Afrique, and "Like This" by Mixmaster Gee and the Turntable Orchestra - plus "Crazy Man" by the Prodigy itself. Only "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine is as well-known as SMBU.
  • It's not that hard to hear Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin" and at some point sing "Wild Thing!".
    • Same deal with "Funky Cold Medina," which is based on Foreigner's "Hot Blooded." Unlike the aforementioned example, however, "Hot Blooded" remains the more famous song.
  • In some performances, Dick Dale would actually stop playing "Misirlou" at the moment The Black Eyed Peas sampled it for "Pump It" and sing the iconic "Turn up the radio/Blast your stereo/Right now," to the amusement of the audience. Judging from his facial expression and his statements after playing the song, he is not pleased about the sampling. Although it's actually an old Greek song, by Tetos Dimitriades from 1927.
    • "My Humps" samples the beat and riff of Sexual Harrassment's "I Need A Freak".
    • And depending on your audience, "Time of my Life" is just the basis for "The Time (Dirty Bit)".
    • Also depending on the audience, Corona’s Eurodance classic "The Rhythm of the Night" is just the basis for "Ritmo" (the hugely successful Bad Boys for Life theme).
  • While on the Peas, Fergie's "Clumsy" with Little Richard's theme for The Girl Can't Help It.
  • Brazilian band Barão Vermelho's version of a Brazilian samba is not only a Covered Up version of it, but also a Sampled Up "Low Rider".
  • Most of the youth today probably know the epic piano from "The Way It Is" (Bruce Hornsby) from 2Pac's "Changes".
    • Speaking of 2Pac, most probably recognize the piano from Joe Cocker's "Woman to Woman" as the backing to his and Dr. Dre's "California Love".
  • "Waiting For A Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl died a death when three different artists sampled it more or less simultaneously (Cabin Crew as "Star To Fall", Sunset Strippers as "Falling Stars" and Mylo as "In My Arms"). Mylo's version is by far the best, although the other two were the big chart hits.
    • Mylo's version also samples the synthesizer riff from Kim Carnes' version of "Bette Davis Eyes", which may very well end up falling victim to this trope as well.
    • The Eurobeat tune "I Remember Why I Love You" by Nathalie also samples and/or interpolates WFASTF.
  • M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" samples the The Clash song "Straight to Hell", which itself got sampled for T.I. and Jay-Z's "Swagga Like Us"
    • Listening to "Straight to Hell" after hearing "Paper Planes" is...interesting. For most of the song, it sounds like the sample is a heavily altered version of the main tune. Until you get to the line "And Mama-san said...", at which point shit gets real.
  • When you hear "Free your mind and...", do you picture:
    • En Vogue singing "...the rest will follow" over some R&B?
    • Funkadelic chanting "...and your ass will follow?" over feedback-heavy freaky funk?
  • Ever heard of a Finnish prog-rock instrumental called "The Madness Subsides" by Pekka Pohjola? Probably not. But if the tune sounds vaguely familiar, you can thank DJ Shadow for that.
    • The keyboard riff from Tears for Fears' "Sowing the Seeds of Love" is also incredibly similar, but it's been confirmed as not being a Pohjola sample.
  • "Un Amor Original" by Sophy. "Istanbul" by Cora. Never heard of them, right? But how about RJD2's "1976"?
  • Steely Dan has had a fair number of songs that are obscured by sampling (well to those youngins and all who didn't really listen to their parents' music). Some songs of their's that have been sampled include "Kid Charlemagne"("Champion"-Kanye West), "Peg" ("Eye Know"-De La Soul), and "Black Cow" ("Deja Vu"-Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, "Gas Drawls"-MF Doom)
  • Most people of the young generation are completely unaware that "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio samples the Stevie Wonder song, "Pastime Paradise" (from Songs in the Key of Life). Though knowledge of this was a big part of the reason Coolio was subjected to so much derision that "Weird Al" Yankovic "disrespected his song" with "Amish Paradise."
  • WWF/E fans may remember Metallica's "Sad But True" as The Undertaker's theme song, Kid Rock's American Badass when he started his "Bikertaker" gimmick in May 2000.
  • Several disco songs from the 70's became well known club house hits in the 90's and 00's. Jackie Moore - This Time Baby, Michael Zager - Let's All Chant and The SOS Band - Take Your Time were all used for the foundations for tracks from Freemasons, Gusto and Maximillion respectively
  • Perhaps one of the most famous example of a sample going completely viral is the a capella of Loleatta Holloway's "Love Sensation". Snippets of her vocals have become the centerpieces of countless dance classics, including Black Box's "Ride On Time", Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch's "Good Vibrations", Cevin Fisher's "(You Got Me) Burnin' Up", multiple songs with the title "Take Me Away", and so on. The song's instrumentals were also used in Samantha Fox's "I Wanna Have Some Fun".
    • One of her other tracks, "Do That To Me" is the source of another popular sample, especially for video game music, though it's a male guest vocalist's voice sampled rather than Holloway's. It's the source of the "Y'all Wanna Get Funky?" voice clip found on tracks from Jet Set Radio and Pizza Tower
  • The aptly-named Human Nature Remix for SWV's hit "Right Here" samples the intro melody(and some vocals) of the Michael Jackson song "Human Nature", and while it hardly eclipses the original overall, just try to listen to that melody without hearing Pharrell Williams' voice in the background going “S-S-Double-W-to-the-V-V!”.
    • In turn, Chris Brown sampled "Right Here" in "She Ain't You".
  • Jermaine Dupri's "Been Away" (of Drumline fame) borrows liberally from Michael Jackson's "I Wanna Be Where You Are," including some of the vocals.
  • The music in the Harlem driving levels of Die Hard Trilogy for the PlayStation samples Public Enemy's "Bring The Noise", which has also been sampled in many real-life songs, eg The Prince of Rap's "This Beat Is Hot" and DJ Schwede's "Here We Go Again".
    • Freestylers' "Freestyle Noize", Bomb The Bass' "Megablast"... yeah, it gets sampled a lot.
    • And a meta-Sampled Up from the same song: "Bring The Noise" opens with a sample of a Malcolm X speech. And then Hideki Naganuma samples that same speech for "Wrapped in Black," the final boss theme of Sonic Rush.
    • The titular sample of Public Domain's "Rock Da Funky Beats", also used in DJ Faber's "Music I Like" and the above-mentioned Freestylers song, comes from another Public Enemy track, "Caught, Can We Get A Witness?"— a track which, ironically enough, is all about Public Enemy's own use of sampling.
  • "Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen..." Utah Saints had a hit with "Something Good" in 1992 featuring that line, which charted again with a remix in 2008. Both versions were more popular than Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting", the source of the sample.
  • "Another Dimension" by Timmy Vegas and Bad Lay Dee samples the organ riff from Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman" (which has been sampled several times before), and the robotic vocals from Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic".
  • The acid riff from the Pump Panel remix of New Order's "Confusion", heard in Blade, was sampled up by Public Domain in "Operation Blade", and by the Warp Brothers in "Phat Bass" around the same time. More recently, it appeared in Oscillator X's "Singularity".
  • Orbital's "Halcyon (& On & On)" uses reversed vocal samples from the Singing Simlish refrain of Opus III's "It's a Fine Day".
    • The break of "One Perfect Sunrise" samples/interpolates the second interlude of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" from Autobahn, which was also sampled in New Order's "Krafty".
  • "Talk" by Coldplay isn't entirely originally by them. It's based on Kraftwerk's "Computerliebe" (playing the synth riff on guitars - and the Germans thanked that Coldplay at least asked for permission beforehand, "unlike that bastard Jay-Z", who sampled "The Man-Machine" in "(Always Be My) Sunshine"), but it became a much bigger hit and much more popular among an audience too young to even know Kraftwerk in the first place.
  • The obscure one-track wonder Dominatrix - "The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight" was sampled in Junior Cartier's "Women Beat Their Men", then meta-sampled in Terranova's "Angie(OST)".
  • PM Dawn's "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss" uses samples from '80s New Wave stars Spandau Ballet's song "True".
    • And "Looking Through Patient Eyes" is based largely on George Michael's "Father Figure".
  • True Faith & Final Cut's "Take Me Away" was sampled by The Crystal Method, in "Come With Me", and The Prodigy, in "Warrior's Dance".
  • That catchy electronic riff that's the basis for Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun"? That's actually sampled from "The Swan's Splashdown", a track by electronic music pioneers Perrey and Kingsley's album In Sounds from Way Out.
  • Does Vittorio Monti's "Csárdás" sound familiar to you? Maybe a little, right? Well, I'll tell you why. Feast your ears.
    • On a related note, there's a good chance you're familiar with Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina's song "Stereo Love", it being a popular song in North America nowadays (read: 2010). That said, there's a much better chance that you've never heard "Bayatılar", a song composed by Eldur Mansurov, who is Azerbaijani, which "Stereo Love" is built around. Maya himself stated that he "[hopes] to personally meet with Eldur Mansurov".
  • Tom Tom Club - "Genius of Love" => Mariah Carey - "Fantasy". Does anyone remember the original? It's actually mentioned on one-hit wonder retrospectives a lot, but would it have made it on without the sample? Probably not.
    • 'Genius of Love' was also sampled by Mark Morrison for "Return of the Mack".
  • Did "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. sound familiar to you? Huey Lewis thought so. And a court agreed with him, awarding damages to Lewis for the fact Parker had basically lifted the riff from "I Want A New Drug" for the song.
  • Heard of "South Bronx" by Boogie Down Productions, or "Watch Out Now" by The Beatnuts? They were both sampled in Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From The Block".
  • "Man in the Moon" by Fragma (2003) samples the riff from "Cafe Del Mar"(Three n One remix) by Energy 52 (1997), and so is basically that song With Lyrics.
  • How about Booty Bounce by Dev? The song will probably sound unfamiliar to you. Then, "Poppin' bottles in the ice..." Of course, both songs were released in 2010, and Dev did get a credit on the single.
  • Len's "Steal My Sunshine" is tightly anchored around the piano solo from fellow One-Hit Wonder Andrea True's 1976 disco hit "More More More".
  • Garbage's "Stupid Girl" prominently samples the opening drum part from "Train in Vain" by the Clash. In fact, "Stupid Girl" opens with the drum part, so when you hear it on the radio you have to wait a few seconds to find out if you're listening to it or "Train in Vain".
    • If it helps: Garbage's song starts with the drums at a steady volume and some background industrial noise, The Clash have the drums fade in slowly by themselves.
  • The intro of Rick Castle (aka Andrea Girbaudo aka Starkly Ice)'s "Dolce Vita Tonight" samples the bassline of the obscure 80's song "Dolce Vita" by Ryan Paris.
  • The famous "It Takes Two" song by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock uses samples from Lyn Collins' song "Think".
    • "Yeah! Woo! Yeah! Woo!..."
    • Also, the lyrics of the refrain are sampled in "Two to Make It Right" by Seduction.
      • ...which also samples Tom Jones' "Think I better dance now!" from the Art of Noise's version of Prince's "Kiss", which had Jones on lead vocals. The "Think I better dance now!" line was because the song was going into a instrumental part.
    • "It Takes Two" itself might be known to younger listeners as a sample in Snoop Dogg's "I Wanna Rock" and the Black Eyed Peas' "Rock Your Body".
    • The breakbeat of "Think" is also one of the most ubiquitous samples, alongside the Amen break and Apache Break.
  • The techno song "Outa Space" (not to be confused with "Out Of Space" by The Prodigy) by Mellow Trax (aka DJ Mellow D) samples the refrain of the reggae song "Chase The Devil" by Max Romeo.
    • For that matter, so does that Prodigy song.
  • Cybotron's "Clear" sampled the ascending synth glissando from Kraftwerk's "The Hall of Mirrors", then it was meta-sampled in Missy Elliot's "Lose Control".
  • The one-track wonder "Pump Up the Volume" by M|A|R|R|S sampled its titular phrase from "I Know Ya Got Soul" from Paid in Full by Eric B. & Rakim, as well as using two dozen other obscure samples.
  • The now mostly-forgotten (at least in the US) "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat has a memorable riff that has been the basis for "Tell Me Why" by Supermode, was also interpolated in "Cry For You" by September, and been borrowed for a fair few other songs besides.
  • Furries in a Blender released a song called Crazy, which promptly disappeared into obscurity until a YouTube Poop that combined it with the theme from I. M. Meen was put up. Nowadays, the I.M. Meen version is much more well-known, to the point where most people don't even realise it was a different song in the first place.
  • The refrain of Candi Staton's rare B-side "I Know" has been sampled a lot, including in Bowa's "Different Story", the Freestylers' "Don't Stop", and Tiga's "You Gonna Want Me".
  • "You Got The Love" by The Source sampled up the original a capella version by Candi Staton, along with the backing track from "Your Love" by Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle, though it would later be Eclipsed by the Remix which retained the former sample but dropped the latter. (And later still it got Covered Up by Florence + the Machine.)
  • Parodied in "Magic Man" the Bad Lip Reading of "My Chick Bad" by Ludacris, which omits Nicki Minaj's involvement and pretends to have sampled (another Bad Lip Reading of) "Too Much Heaven" by the Bee Gees.
  • Mr. Scruff's "Get A Move On", famous from its use in commercials, is based on the little-known Moondog song "Bird's Lament".
  • Jordin Sparks' "SOS (Let the Music Play)"(not to be confused with the other SOS song mentioned above) seems to have to done this to Shannon's original "Let the Music Play".
  • Many viewers of X-Men: First Class were left puzzled as to why Gnarls Barkley's "Run" was used in a montage sequence in the otherwise 1960s Period Piece. Of course, the answer is that the background music was actually Keith Mansfield's "Junior Jet Set".
  • "Nautilus" by Bob James, the jazz song most sampled by hip-hop artists. According to The Other Wiki, "Some of the hip hop songs that have sampled or interpolated this song include "Beats To The Rhyme" by Run–D.M.C., "Children's Story" by Slick Rick, "Follow The Leader" and "Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em" by Eric B. & Rakim, "Daytona 500" by Ghostface Killah, "My Mind Spray" by Jeru The Damaja, "Job Song" by Consequence, "Murray's Revenge" by Murs, and "Take It Back" by the Wu-Tang Clan."
  • "All Summer Long", by Kid Rock is an almost identical interpolation of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama". Same tempo, same chord progression, same main instruments. "All Summer Long" was indeed based on "Sweet Home Alabama" even being referenced in the lyrics. It also has exactly the same intro as "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.
    • "Sweet Home Alabama" also forms the basis of the remade version of "Gangsta of Love" by the Geto Boys, after Steve Miller demanded that they stop using his song "The Joker" as its basis. The song's title now makes no sense.
  • "Whoomp! (There it Is)", the sole hit of Tag Team, samples its bassline from the intro of "I'm Ready" by Kano.
  • Baz Luhrmann's "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" does this to "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" (using both the chorus and the musical backing from the version featured in Romeo + Juliet, which was directed by Luhrmann).
  • Older Than Radio: Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture samples (or "quotes") the French national anthem La Marseillaise. It also samples God Save the Tsar, the Russian anthem prior to the Russian revolution.
  • Stigma & Master Mixin' Mondo's "Don't Knock It" samples the synth of The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger".
  • Color Me Badd's "All 4 Love" heavily samples the minor 1966 soul hit "Patch My Heart" by The Mad Lads (co-written by Isaac Hayes), to the extent that it's only a couple steps away from being a full-on remake with new lyrics.
    • Their more famous "I Wanna Sex You Up" takes a sample from Slick Rick's "La Di Da Di".
  • A vocal sample from Sylvester's 1970's disco hit "You Make Me Feel" made its way into Real 2 Reel's 90's dance hit "I Like To Move It"; repeated throughout the song, although casual listeners (especially people who associate the song with Madagascar) might not recognize it in its context. The instrumental backing of YMMF was also the basis for the late 90's filter disco-house track "Fly Away" by Eyes Cream (not Eye Scream) as well as "Encore (Ooh Ooh Yeah Yeah)" by Sugar Babies.
  • "Call on Me" by Eric Prydz, famous for its stripperific eroticized aerobics video, derives its Looped Lyrics from an '80s song, "Valerie" by Steve Winwood; Winwood actually re-recorded his vocals on Prydz's song. In turn, "Call on Me" was sampled in LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" and one of the remixes of Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad".
  • The first and third verses of Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" ("Take a look at my girlfriend, she's the only one I've got...") is now best-known by younger audiences for its usage in Gym Class Heroes' "Cupid's Chokehold" (and it's not even the original, but a cover by Patrick Stump).
  • One Hit Wonders 3rd Bass did a diss track in 1992 called "Pop Goes The Weasel", a rap calling out the commercial success of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, and their respective heavy looping of "Super Freak" and "Under Pressure" to craft their breakout hits...all the while sampling up Peter Gabriel's hit, "Sledgehammer". Of course, it climbed the pop charts, and the video got MTV airplay with the same kind of mainstream audience Ice and Hammer helped them reach.
  • Shaggy's "Angel" uses "Angel of the Morning", recorded by various artists beginning with Juice Newton and Merilee Rush.
    • It also uses "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band.
  • "Battle Flag" by Lo Fidelity All-Stars caused an unusual variation that could be called "remixed up": It was originally created as a remix of a song of the same name by Pigeonhed, which set that song's vocals to totally different music and threw in some additional rapping. After appearing on Pigeonhed's 1997 remix album Flash Bulb Emergency Overflow Cavalcade of Remixes, it became the lead-off single for Lo Fidelity All-Stars' 1998 album How To Operate With A Blown Mind, newly credited as "Lo Fidelity All-Stars featuring Pigeonhed".
  • A chain of samples: the Knight Rider theme by Stu Phillips was sampled in "Fire It Up" by Busta Rhymes, which in turn was used as the basis for "Mundian To Bach Ke" by Panjabi MC (which was later remixed by Jay-Z), whose intro was sampled in the track "Grand History" from the game "La-Mulana". Phew!
    • Knight Rider was also sampled by Timbaland and Magoo for "Clock Strikes".
  • Covenant's "Slowmotion" samples the rhythm and bassline from Aphex Twin's "Polynomial-C", which itself sampled the Amen break.
  • The spoken-word lyrics from Praga Khan's "Phantasia" were sampled near-simultaneously in three different trance tracks: "Waves" by Space Planet, "Into My Brain" by Mario Lopez & Red Sector, and "X-Santo" by DJ Jan.
  • The techno loop in Max Payne's Ragna Rock stage is actually a snippet from the song "Corruptor" by former Future Crew member and MOD musician Skaven, who was also a member of the development team at Remedy Entertainment.
  • Robin S.'s 1993 house hit "Show Me Love" (no relation to the 1997 R&B song by Robyn) is mostly unknown by the current generation, but its synthesizer riff appears in Jason Derulo's "Don't Wanna Go Home", which also interpolates Harry Belafonte's "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)". Its riff also made a less obvious appearance in Kid Ink's "Show Me".
  • Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love" samples the horn hook from The Chi-Lites "Are You My Woman", and the horns provide a base for the song.
  • How many people recognized Sly and the Family Stone's "Trip to Your Heart" in LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out?"
  • Biz Markie used "(You) Got What I Need", a relatively obscure 1968 R&B hit by Freddie Scott (and an early effort by master Philadelphia Soul songwriters/producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff), as the basis for "Just a Friend", which itself was interpolated in the Austin Mahone song "Say You're Just a Friend", as well as a mainly different 2002 song by Mario.
  • People familiar with Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper" might be surprised to know the "na na na na na..." chorus is actually from "Land of a Thousand Dances."
  • The riff to Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" is actually a simplified version to the riff of tool's "Schism".
  • Many people are unaware that the chorus of Ronnie Milsap's "Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)" is actually a sample of The Five Satins' 1956 doo-wop hit "In the Still of the Night".
  • The "All I want is the bass, yeah!" sample in Bart B More & Drop The Lime's "The Bass", featured in Max Payne 3's dance club stage, is from Raze's early '90s classic "Bass Power".
  • The Folk Implosion's best-known song, "Natural One", is built around a harpsichord sample from "I Haven't Got The Nerve" by The Left Banke (which was originally the B-Side to The Left Banke's "Walk Away Renée").
  • The tune of the iconic chorus line of Cruella de Vil's eponymous Villain Song in 101 Dalmatians is actually a sample of the opening riff from Thelonious Monk's "Bolivar Blues", which was first released about four years before the film came out.
  • While Slick Rick's "Children's Story" is still well remembered in hip-hop circles, it's one of the most sampled songs of all time, being sampled over five hundred times, most notably by Montell Jordan's for his number-one single "This Is How We Do It". Ironic, considering "Children's Story" is known for sampling "Nautilus", by Nob James. Rick's debut song, "La Di Da Di", is a close second in terms of sampling.
  • Amazingly, even progressive rockers Yes got in on the sampling action with their big 80s hit “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” The drum break at the beginning and the recurring horn-blast hook originally came from the 1971 song “Kool Is Back” by Funk Inc.
  • The popular PS1 Rhythm Game Parappa The Rapper sampled the intro of "Turtles Have Short Legs" by the German rock band Can. It's not uncommon to to go YouTube videos of the original Can song and see people quoting Parappa instead.
  • Skrillex sampled one of his old songs (Equinox) in his song "First of the Year". This is a rare example of an artist doing that to himself.
  • Remember those vocals from the Hamsterdance song? Actually a sped-up sample of Roger Miller's "Whistle Stop" from Robin Hood (1973). Though as with "I Like To Move It", casual listeners might not recognize the sample in its context.
  • If part of the melody of Kaoma's "Lambada"(which itself Covered Up Los Kjarkas' "Llorando se fue") sounds familiar, that's because it was used for the chorus of Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull's "On the Floor".
  • Clairity's "Velcro" samples the synthesizer hook from Yazoo's early 1980's hit "Don't Go", which few people of her generation are familiar with.
  • "Hoooo oooo Ooooo". A generation knew through Boney M.'s "Gotta Go Home", another can't hear that without adding "BARBRA STREISAND!" thanks to Duck Sauce. And yet Boney M took it from another German group, Nighttrain's "Hallo Bimmelbahn".
    • "Energy" is an obscure 1985 song by Melissa Manchester. Nearly thirty years later, its chorus was sampled by Duck Sauce's "NRG", which is much more well known (especially the remix by Skrillex, Kill the Noise, and Milo & Otis).
    • For a third by Duck Sauce, "Radio Stereo", which is a repeated loop of The Members' "Radio".
  • Fall Out Boy's album American Beauty/American Psycho sampled the theme song for The Munsters in the song "Uma Thurman" (widely misattributed to being a Dick Dale sample), Son Lux's "Lost It To Trying" in "Fourth of July", "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega in "Centuries", and Mötley Crüe's "Too Fast For Love" in the album's title track.
    • Fall Out Boy previously dabbled in sampling on "Save Rock and Roll" with "The Phoenix" sampling, of all things, the fourth movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony.
    • The samples of "Tom's Diner" and The Munsters theme song were frequently noted by the press, casual listeners, and fans to the point where Suzanne Vega herself would join Fall Out Boy live to perform "Centuries". The Son Lux samples proved to be far more contentious. Much like Halsey after she sampled "Easy" in "Hold Me Down", FOB got accused of plagiarizing Son Lux by rock and pop fans unfamiliar with how sampling works. Despite Son Lux's willingness to allow FOB to sample "Lost It To Trying" and past mainstream collaborations, the owner of Glassnote Records, Son Lux's label, would later write a very scathing post about allowing the band to sample "Lost It To Trying" in the first place. Depending on your perspective, it's either a huge diss towards FOB, an insightful look at the moral quandaries involved in letting a mainstream act to sample from indie acts, or a bunch of hand wringing from a man complaining about the band's popularity and "sellouts" but still allowed the sampling to happen anyways.
  • The riff from "Brain Stew" by Green Day has an identical chord progression to Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4," only at a much slower tempo and with different instrumentation. Fittingly, both songs are about someone suffering from insomnia.
  • Hollywood Undead's "Undead" borrows its main hook from Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," but speeds up the tempo and changes the key.
  • There's a pretty good chance you've heard Washed Out's "Feel it all Around," but a very slim chance you've heard Gary Low's "I Want You." This is the reason why the former song has an 80's feel to it.
  • Vaporwave runs on this trope. Nearly every song in that genre heavily samples various (usually 80's and 90's) pop, rock, soul and dance tunes varying in obscurity.
    • General Internet users are more likely to have heard Luxury Elite's "Express" than L'affair's "Secret Eyes", the song it samples.
    • "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー"note  by Macintosh Plus is one of the most well-known and parodied songs in the genre. But how many of you have heard Diana Ross' "It's Your Move"?
    • Artist (formerly) known as Saint Pepsi managed to do this to Michael Jackson. This upload of "Off the Wall" has most of comments referencing his track "Enjoy Yourself".
    • Dutch singer Gerard Joling is almost completely unknown on the American side of the pond, but dead mall exploration afficionados will recognize "Ticket to the Tropics" from its sampling in waterfront dining's "the dreamer", featured in the Euclid Square Mall video by Ace's Adventures.
    • Few if any people today remember "Turn Down the Lights" by Shanice (of "I Love Your Smile" fame), which is the basis for "prime time", also by waterfront dining.
    • Consider yourself gifted if you know any of the original songs sampled on waterfront dining's Haunted House EP, which include Debbie Deb's "What About This Heart?" (in "corpse heart"), Missing Persons' "Surrender Your Heart" (in "swords"), Louise Goffin's "5th of July" (in "exhibition park"), and an instrumental demo version of Tuesday Knight's "Never Too Late" (in "the beautiful nightmare").
    • The Future Funk subgenre frequently does this with old-school Japanese Pop Music, e.g. Dan Mason's "Tsundere Lifestyle" is based on "Denwa Shinaide" by Keiko Kimura. waterfront dining also sampled it in "tunnels", albeit in the more traditional vaporwave fashion, using mainly a loop of the intro riff chopped and screwed nearly beyond recognition.
  • The timestretched "Brockwild!" and "Special request" vocals in Double 99's late '90s speed garage anthem "RIP Groove" were sampled from reggae-rap artist Top Cat's 1994 song "Request the Style". More obscurely, the background female vocal loop is a snippet from Tina Moore's "Never Gonna Let You Go"(1995).
  • It's pretty openly acknowledged that Alessia Cara's "Here" is built out of "Glory Box" by Portishead... but somewhat less so that the string section she samples was itself sampled from "Ike's Rap II" by Isaac Hayes. Amusingly, Alessia Cara's Record Producers, Pop and Oak, had a sampled up moment themselves while working on the song - the two had an argument over whether to use a Portishead sample or an Isaac Hayes one, only to eventually figure out that they meant the same thing.
  • The chorus from "Sugar" by Robin Schulz is borrowed from Bash Bash's song "Suga Suga".
  • In "The City" by Kristine feat. Surf School Dropouts, the backing vocals interpolate the refrain of the 1964 hit "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes.
  • 4hero's "Mr Kirk's Nightmare" (1991) samples its titular dialog from Think's anti-drug song "Once You Understand" (1971), and its breakbeat from The Isley Brothers' "Get Into Something" (1970). The 1996 remix also includes a sample of Captain Kirk saying "Energize", among others.
  • Bob & Earl's 1963 song "Harlem Shuffle" has the distinction of being both Covered Up (by The Rolling Stones) and Sampled Up (the horn intro became the horn intro for House of Pain's "Jump Around").
  • Play "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by The Beatles to someone who grew up in the '90s, and they'll probably start singing "Why Don't You Get a Job?" by The Offspring.
  • Many people only remembered Fastball had another hit other than "The Way" once "Out of My Head" got its chorus interpolated by Machine Gun Kelly's "Bad Things" (where Camila Cabello sings a slightly altered version).
  • Santana's "Maria Maria" is a twofer: not only the iconic riff borrows the melody from "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit", but it was sampled by DJ Khaled in his collaboration with Rihanna, "Wild Thoughts".
  • "Mambo No. 5" originated in 1949 as a mostly instrumental song by Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado, but is currently better known in the form of Lou Bega's 1999 remix With Lyrics (including the famous chorus listing women's names).
  • Sister Nancy's 1982 reggae song "Bam Bam" has been sampled in over 75 songs, from Lauryn Hill to Kanye West. However, Sister Nancy didn't start receiving royalties for any of the samples until she took legal action in 2014.
  • That plucky synth hook in Monifah's lone hit "Touch It" (1999) is taken from Danish One-Hit Wonder Laid Back's "White Horse" (1983).
  • Gary's Gang's obscure 1979 funk single "Let's Lovedance Tonight" was sampled twice in 1998; by Ray Mang in "Love Dancing", and by Soulsearcher in "Can't Get Enough". Other modern dance tunes that have sampled it include Cezaire's "Feel Good" and DJ Spen's "Back & Forth".
  • In The '80s and The '90s, Wheel of Fortune advertised itself with a jingle that went "I'm a Wheel Watcher". Very few people know that it was a reworking of the 1968 hit "Girl Watcher" by The O'Kaysions. The reworking was sung by Kool & the Gang.
  • "Moonlight Densetsu" by DALI (and later by Moon Lips), the opening to Sailor Moon, takes its tune from the '60s song "Sayonara wa Dance no Ato ni" by Chieko Baishou.
  • Folks who came of age in the late '90s and early '00s are more likely to be familiar with Pure Sugar's "Delicious" (1998) than A Taste of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (1978).
  • Sasha's "Belfunk", from his 1999 Xpander EP, samples barely-recognizable snippets of the 1991 Orbital song "Belfast", e.g. the chime synth lead and the now chopped and screwed One-Woman Wail. It was originally going to be a remix, until Sasha decided to make an original track out of it.
  • The backing track of Lil Uzi Vert's "Secure The Bag" off of the "1017 vs. The World" EP is a heavily edited version of the Clock Tower Factory theme from Super Monkey Ball 2.
  • "I'm So Humble" from ''Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" uses a sample from the 1960s song "Heartaches" by The Marcels.
  • Busta Rhymes defied this for "Woo-Hah! Got You All in Check". While it's true that most people heard of this name more than that of Galt MacDermont's "Space", but if you got his album "The Coming", then you've heard it, because Busta put a thirty-second interlude of "Space" note  right before his own track.
  • The rhythm track of "If Only I Could" by Sydney Youngblood is a straight lift from Raze's "Break 4 Love". The latter is a much-loved club classic, but Youngblood's hit is more familiar to the mainstream audience.
  • Fans of dancehall reggae may be familiar with Jah Screechy's 1986 single "Walk And Skank". The rest of the world knows its scat vocal hook as "On A Ragga Tip" by SL2.
  • Duran Duran's 1990 single "Serious" is relatively obscure, but its first verse is well-known from being sampled by Ferry Corsten in his 2005 single "Fire".
  • "The Roof is On Fire", a now-obscure 1984 electro-hip-hop single by Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three, underwent this at least twice in the '90s, being directly sampled by German DJ WestBam in his early '90s house hit also titled "The Roof is On Fire", and interpolated by The Bloodhound Gang in their 1997 alt-rock hit "Fire Water Burn".
  • S'Express's "Theme From S'Express" is one big collage of samples, many from obscure songs such as Rose Royce's "Is It Love You're After? (intro riff), TZ's "I've Got the Hots for You" (main vocal hook), Karen Finley's "Tales of Taboo" ("Drop that ghetto blaster!"), Alfredo de la Fe's "Hot to Trot" (Brazilian percussion break), Crystal Grass's "Crystal World" (trumpet breakdown), Ish Ledesma's "Scream for Daddy" (scream after breakdown), etc.
  • The 1983 De Barge song "A Dream" has been sampled in at least 19 different songs, the most well-known being Tupac Shakur's "I Ain't Mad at Cha" and "Don't Leave Me" by Blackstreet.
  • Viper's "Maybe One Day You'll See Me Again" has become one of his most widely regarded tracks, and is built around a sample from a far lesser known early T-Pain album track "My Place".
  • Stretch & Vern's 1996 dance hit "I'm Alive" samples the main hook of "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire & The Emotions, which is still reasonably well-known, and the first verse of the much more obscure rap tune "The Vision" by Prophecy feat. Africa True.
  • Heard Captain Rock's 1983 song "The Return of Capt. Rock"? More likely, you've heard the verse "Let's jet out, we'll cruise at hyperspeed" sampled in one of several songs, including The Prodigy's "Hyperspeed(G-Force Part 2)" Drumattic Twins' "Hyperspeed", and Ferry Corsten's "Check It Out".
  • "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" by Spiller with Sophie Ellis-Bextor extensively samples "Love is You" by Carol Williams. Indeed, the original version of "Groovejet" is basically an instrumental re-edit of the Williams track. Ellis-Bextor later lampshaded this by recording a straight cover of "Love Is You".
  • A major challenger to the Amen break for sheer ubiquity is the Apache Break. An obscure studio group called the Incredible Bongo Band recorded a 1973 Cover Version of the 1960 Instrumental "Apache" (originated by The Shadows in the UK, with Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann having the hit version in the US). It has a drum break that, because of its length (almost 90 seconds of a nearly-5:00 long song) was prized in the formative days of Hip-Hop, and still gets used as a nostalgic Call-Back today. WhoSampled.com lists over 600 songs that have used "Apache", with The Sugarhill Gang's "Jump On It" (and Sir Mix-A-Lot's version) and West Street Mob's "Breakdance (Electric Boogie)" being among the examples.
  • Those who listened to Radio Disney in the late 1990s may be familiar with "Kitty Kat Max" by 1000 Clowns which sampled from Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth".
  • Armand van Helden's 1996 electro-house hit "The Funk Phenomena" samples up three songs: "How High" by Method Man & Redman for the repeating Title Drop, "Don't Throw My Love Around" by Cooly's Hot Box for the main riff, and "Who is He(And What Is He To You)?" by Creative Source for the intro and bass line.
  • The title vocal in Darude's "Feel The Beat" originates from "Dancin'", a little known 1986 song by Shannon of "Let The Music Play" fame.
  • "Feel The Rhythm"(not to be confused with the aforementioned "Feel The Beat") by G-Netic sources its Title Drop from Chic's "Le Freak", though as with "I Like To Move It" and several other examples, casual listeners may not recognize it in its context. This vocal was also sampled by Sex-O-Sonique in "Funk It Up".
  • Color Theory's "Feral" uses a sped-up sample of the introductory synth riff from Duran Duran's "Save A Prayer", as well as an out-of-context percussion sample from Yello's "Oh Yeah".
  • The Bingo Boys' 1994 Eurodance single "Sugar Daddy" interpolates both the synthesizer riff of "Visitors" by italo-spacesynth duo Koto, and the refrain of the 1969 song "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies.
  • The memetic song "Hell to Da Naw Naw Naw" by Bishop Bullwinkle contains a backing track taken from "Lookin' for a Country Girl" by Bigg Robb. Robb sued Bullwinkle for not crediting him, and the song was re-recorded with a different, albeit similar sounding, tune.
  • The backing track to Lil Boom's "Omae Wa Mou" is, in fact, an instrumental version of a Touhou Project doujin song called "Tiny Little Adiantum"
  • If you're a late Gen-Xer or early millennial, you have likely heard Cassius's "Feeling For You" circa 1999, which in turn was remixed by Avicii and Sebastien Drums in 2010. Or if you're a Gen-Zer, Ariana Grande & Lady Gaga's "Rain on Me" from 2020. But how many of you have heard of Gwen McCrae's "All This Love That I'm Giving"(1979), where the bass riffs of both songs and the former's vocal refrain originated?
  • Listening to "The Edge", an instrumental track by David McCallum, is a very strange experience because you keep expecting Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre to come in and start performing "The Next Episode".
  • Most Gran Turismo veterans know Apollo 440's "Cold Rock The Mic" from the second installment. Which of you know Led Zeppelin's "The Wanton Song" or Run–D.M.C.'s "P Upon a Tree", though?
  • Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" has a writing credit for Trent Reznor that often surprises people. That's because the beat he bought samples the mournful banjo tune of Nine Inch Nails' "34 Ghosts IV."
  • Basement Jaxx employ this trope at least as much as Daft Punk and Fatboy Slim. For example, those who came of age around the turn of the millennium probably know "Red Alert" or "Where's Your Head At?", but are unlikely to have heard Locksmith's "Far Beyond" or Gary Numan's "M.E.", both from 1980.
  • That "Somebody scream!" vocal heard in countless techno/EDM tracks originates from the 1988 house single "The Party" by Kraze, which itself sampled up Strafe's "Set It Off".
  • One part of the solo in Metallica's "Enter Sandman" was borrowed by Kirk Hammett from Ice-T's "Personal", which itself was a sample off the Heart (Band) song "Magic Man".
  • Y'all know 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny", but have you heard Mass Production's "Firecracker"?
  • "Harlem Shake" by Baauer contains vocal samples from "Miller Time" by Plastic Little ("do the Harlem Shake") and "Maldades" by reggaeton artist Héctor "el Father" Delgado ("con los terroristas").
  • Ma$e's "Feel So Good" takes the chorus melody from Miami Sound Machine's "Bad Boy (You Make Me Feel So Good)" and loops beats from "Hollywood Swinging" by Kool & the Gang under it.
  • Recognize the intro riff and chord progression of "Te Espero" by Prince Royce and Maria Becerra? In case you're too young to remember, it's sampled from Cutting Crew's 1986 hit "(I Just) Died In Your Arms (Tonight)".
  • Pete Schofield and The Canadians' instrumental cover of Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia" is primarily known for having its opening and closing riffs sampled for John Cena's WWE theme "The Time is Now".
  • Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" has two of them, the melody from the Brazilian song "Taj Mahal" (whose author Jorge Ben Jor sued for plagiarism, and Stewart tried to compensate donating royalties to UNICEF) and the string arrangement from the song "(If You Want My Love) Put Something Down On It" by Bobby Womack.
  • Lily Allen started off this way: "Smile" sampled "Free Soul" by the Soul Brothers, before following up with "LDN", sampling "Reggae Merengue" by Tommy McCook and the Supersonics.
  • Porn Kings' 1996 Breakthrough Hit "Up To No Good", in addition to its titular rap lyric sampled from Whodini's "Big Mouth"(1985), reinterpreted the 303 acid riff from Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness"(1995). In turn, Voodoo & Serrano sampled this modified version of the riff for "Blood Is Pumpin'" in 2001.
  • The 1932 song "My Woman" suffered this from two songs, White Town's "Your Woman" and Dua Lipa's "Love Again". And that's not counting those who think the Imperial March is a Suspiciously Similar Song...
  • In Mauro Picotto's "Komodo", the breakbeat during the downtempo "Save A Soul" interlude originates from Deep Forest's "Sweet Lullaby".
  • The female spoken-word vocals of the 1991 Italo house single "La Puerta del Sol" by Sueño Latino were sampled up in not one, but two late '90s trance anthems: "El Niño" by Agnelli & Nelson, and the Suspiciously Similar Song "Magica" by Magica.
  • "C.R.E.A.M.", by the Wu-Tang Clan. The beat is sampled from the intro of The Charmels' 1967 single "As Long As I've Got You".
  • The quote "Regulators. We regulate any stealing of his property. We're damn good, too. But you can't be any geek off the street. You gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean. Earn your keep," is from the movie Young Guns, but is today probably best remembered for being used as the opening of Warren G and Nate Dogg's 1994 hit "Regulate."
  • If you're a Millennial, Jakaranda's "Never Let You Go" is iconic, mostly for its use as the only contemporary song in the Disney remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Most are too young to recognize the distinctive hook, sampled from The Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town."
    • Dario G's "Sunchyme" is mostly taken from the same song.
  • One-Hit Wonder Debelah Morgan's "Dance With Me" interpolates the melody of "Hernando's Hideaway" from the 1954 musical The Pajama Game, popularized by Archie Bleyer.
  • The tribal vocalese in Enigma's "Return to Innocence", often mistaken for a Native American chant, originates from a Taiwanese aboriginal folk song known as "Jubilant Drinking Song", recorded by the couple Difang and Igay Duana of the Amis tribe, who took legal action against Enigma for plagiarism in 1998. Additionally, it samples the beat of Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks".
  • The Gaelic One-Woman Wail in Signum's "Cura Me", Tiësto's "A Tear In The Open", and the Tomb Raider: Legend soundtrack, contrary to belief, is not a stock vocal sample, but originates from Karen Matheson's recording of the folk song "Ailein duinn" for the soundtrack to Rob Roy.

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