Have you ever heard a song and realized that in some way it was the basis for another song?

I just bought Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" and I had no idea that Coolio's "Gangster's Paradise" is virtually a note for note remake of Stevie's "Pastime Paradise."

That made me think of other things like Will Smith's "Men in Black" is sampled from "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen. How many people would know that?

Or that a song is a cover at all. I had a few John Hiatt albums but not the one with the original version of "The Thing Called Love" that got popular from Bonnie Raitt's version.

How many other songs that are popular are either covers or heavily sampled? Which discovery like this surprised you the most?

Virtually anything P Diddy has ever released

I don't mean "Hey, listen to this! P. Diddy sampled the "Bonanza" theme!

I mean you hear a song and then later you hear the original song, which you didn't know existed.

Virtually every blues lick I hear. That's one great thing about the blues. A version from the 30's sounds nothing like the version done on the 90's or whatever. Being able to track the lineage of a particular song, i.e. who wrote it, who covered it and how successful where they, who else has covered the tune as blues tunes get covered a great deal. Led Zeppelin is a good example. In fact that's how I got into the blues. Listening to Led Zeppelin and then discovering as a youth that they pretty much took the blues and made it rock out. There are several blues tunes that Led Zep covered.

Unfortunatley that is NOT how I like my music, i.e. rehashed. The music industry seems to think that is the way to go as I see covers being done more and more as of late. Any others see this?

I didn't realise that Will Smith's "Men In Black" was based on "Send Me Forget-me-nots". I had a good laugh when I heard the orginal on an easy listening station.

I think the more difficult question is how many non-rap or hip-hop songs do this? Because if you include rap and hip-hop, you've just multiplied the potential responses by about 10,000X.

I'd say currently, the new No Doubt single isn't recognized by many as a cover of the great '80s band Talk Talk.

Also, being a huge Gary Numan fan, there have been many songs which are either Numan covers or based on Numan samples:

Last year's Sugababes hit (#1 in the UK) "Freak Like Me" actually used Numan's own music from "Are 'Friends' Electric?" as the basis of the song. (The lyrics portion was taken from Adina Howard's original song called "Freak Like Me".)

Basement Jaxx song "Where's Your Head At?" used a sample from Numan's "M.E." as its main riff.

And finally, Marilyn Manson as well as Foo Fighters covered Numan's "Down In The Park".

The only one that comes to mind for me is Physical (Your So) by NIN, which I found out some time later was originally recorded by Adam Ant.

I found that one out in a Red Lobster lobby like 3 years ago.

Lately on NFL broadcasts i've been hearing the music from a puff daddy song, "Victory" off of No Way Out. I have a hard time beleiving puff daddy could create an original beat, but i find it odd i never heard it before the puff daddy song. It's got kind of a "NFL FILMS" vibe to it. Anyone know the origin?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/cl...257177-8756716

Point taken.

That one breaks my heart. I love Talk Talk. No Doubt didn't even do anything new with the song.

Really? Another one I didn't know.

It's sampled from the score to Rocky.

Will Smith ripped off Stevie Wonder for "Wild Wild West" which is "I Wish." It wasn't just a sample, it's a whole song and groove, which, I think, makes it different from decent hip hop which just takes a second or so, and manages to create something different or at least interesting...

I always thought that the will smith song for men in black sounded more like "rock the cahbage" from the clash.

And if you want an even better cd of blues music, just buy Robert Johnson's "King of the Delta Blues" vol 1 and 2, and many of the songs by clapton, hendrix, the stones, and zeppelin are from his songs.

Your probably thinking of "Willenium"(I think that's the songs title) That's the song that used the "Rock The Casbah" music.

Well, I just discovered that Will Smith did another one. His song "Miami" is lifted straight from "And the Beat Goes On" by The Whispers. Attaboy, Will.

I can't believe I really thought this hook was original. I've learned a valuable lesson. Again.

Rock the Cabbage?

The best example I can think of is when I found out that Dylan's "Obviously Five Believers" is a complete ripoff of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" from the Muddy Waters album Real Blues. I mean, note-for-note, the backing track is exactly the same.

jimi hendrix - all along the watchtower.

i always though he wrote it until i started getting into dylan. and then i was like, damn that cover is amazing!

A ton of R&B/Rap songs but I can't remember any off the top of my head.

Rap Music = HipHop Music.

They're the same thing!

it's called hippityhop music

Danger1313, listen to "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge. It's a song you can get jiggy with.

i keep hearing some hiphop song at the gym that sounds exactly like the theme to gilligan's island...

Just about any Will Smith song post Fresh Prince era is a rip. Almost as bad as P.Daddy-diddly-do.

ya they are the same thing!!!

they are both SH1T!!!

Gin Blossoms "Allison Road" = Rolling Stones "Ruby Tuesday"

Hip-Hop 0r Rap music is the leading music of R&B today.
There was a time in the 60's,70's,& 80's when R&B music was fresh & oringinal and was liked by both black & white music listeners.