The Source

26 Aug 2017

Show 003 / Perfection Beat Encore

Music

Episode 3 features songs from Dannii Minogue, Vicki Sue Robinson, and Faithless.

“The Source” explores popular music with the aim to discover if it has been “borrowed” from other songs.  The show will go back to the source of popular songs, and play the songs they have sampled from.

The final track on Episode 2 was “Levels” by Avicii. The vocal sample was of course the dearly departed Etta James.

Her continuing relevance was affirmed in 2011 when the DJ achieved substantial chart success with the song “Levels”, which samples her 1962 song “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”. The same sample was used by the rapper Flo Rida in his 2011 hit single “Good Feeling”. Both artists issued statements of condolence upon James’s death in 2012.

Song Notes

Faithless / Sash! / Kariya

The main refrain of “Insomnia” is a heavy sample of 1989′ “Let Me Love You for Tonight” by UK artist Kariya. Norwegian electronica artist Biosphere has also claimed that Faithless sampled the bassline from his single “Novelty Waves”.  Faithless have expressed their displeasure with the fact that elements of this song were reused by Sash! for his single “Encore Une Fois”.

Fergie / Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock / Lyn Collins

“You Already Know” Fergie feat. Nicki Minaj directly samples from “Think” by Lyn Collins. So much so if you listen carefully to the track you can hear Lyn’s vocals!

“Think (About It)” by Lyn Collins was released back in 1972. The recording was produced by James Brown and you can even make out his voice in the woo part of the wooh yeah. The yeah is done by Bobby Bird.

The “wooh yeah” has been used in literally hundreds of songs with one of the first sampling the hit was Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock performing “It Takes Two”/Get On The Dancefloor (1988) – although it was first done by Cookie Crew in their performance of “Females”.

You can find more songs that use the “wooh yeah” sample here.

Dannii Minogue & Soul Seekerz / Vicki Sue Robinson

“Perfection” began as an instrumental track by the Soul Seekerz that samples “Turn The Beat Around”, which was originally performed by disco singer Vicki Sue Robinson. Simon Langford from the Soul Seekerz decided to sample the song after watching the end credits for the film The Specialist. Langford excited by his song idea phoned his writing partner Julian Napolitano. Two days later, Napolitano had completed close to seventy percent of the song, much to the surprise of Langford, who had been preoccupied with paper work. After completing the instrumental track, the group were approached by All Around the World Records, who wanted to use the track for a song by Minogue. Minogue, Rob Davis and Therese Grankvist then wrote lyrics to accompany the music composed by the Soul Seekerz.

In a review for Allmusic, John Lucas called the song a “painfully generic attempt at recapturing former glories” and “beneath someone of Minogue’s calibre”. He also criticized Minogue’s vocals, calling them “uninspired”.

I don’t agree with Lucas’ review. Thumbs up for the track.

Check out the podcast for more!

Know of a couple of tracks that sound the same?  Tell me about it – thesource@joy.org.au.

Saturday 6pm GMT+10 on JOY949.

Tune into JOY 94.9 on your radio, or listen on your computer / mobile device by visiting www.joy.org.au/listenlive

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:12 — 60.1MB)

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