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Friday, Aug 26 2016, 10AM
The opening drums are scratched and used throughout the De La track Ghetto Thang, first at 0:06.
Used in the chorus of the De La track (first at 0:45), the hook features a shifted electronic note with some rhythm guitar.
The drum sample appears at the very beginning and throughout the De La track.
The percussive synth from throughout the Kraftwerk express is used throughout the De La soul track Ghetto Thang, first entering at about 0:02.
De La Soul got sued for 1.7 Million dollars over the usage of a sample from this song, which The Turtles didn't even write.
This track, a cover of the Beatles’s “Hey Jude,” was the most successful song on the record, peaking at No. 13 on the R&B Charts. The album is also notable for featuring a young Duane Allman on guitar.
One of the most iconic tracks of 3 Feet High and Rising, “Eye Know” wasn’t released as a single in the US, but peaked at No. 14 on the UK Single Charts. The track has an amazing music video featuring green screen and beautiful psychedelic colors and imagery, which made the group appear gloriously removed from reality.
1969 proved to be a hard year for the R&B vocal group The Mad Lads, due to dwindling chart success and general interest in the group. The band’s second studio album, The Mad, Mad, Mad, Lads, which featured this track, failed to produce a Top 20 R&B hit (though their version of “By The Time I Get to Phoenix peaked at No. 28 on the US R&B Charts). The group broke up by the end of 1969.
Lee Dorsey was a New Orleans-based R&B singer most famous for his work in the 1960s. The majority of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint, and featured The Meters as backing band. “Get Out of My Life, Woman” was Lee Dorsey’s first single of 1966, peaking at No. 5 on the US R&B charts. Despite considerable success as a performer, including a gold record for his hit “Ya Ya,” Dorsey worked for most of his life at an auto repair business he founded in 1955 in New Orleans. In 1980, he opened for The Clash on tour in the US.
Released in 1968, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was the first posthumous single to top the US Charts. The track was recorded twice by Redding in 1967, including once just days before his death in a plane crash. The whistled tune ending the track was originally recorded by Redding, who had planned to fill the time with a “little fadeout rap... an ad-lib,” (qtd. from an interview with producer Steve Cropper), but forgot what it was, so he started whistling. The track was released just after Redding’s death, and was listed by Billboard as the No. 4 single of 1968. It was Redding’s most successful single, selling over 4 million copies worldwide.
“Single a Simple Song” was the b-side to Sly & The Family Stone’s #1 hit “Everyday People.” It was included on the Stand album, which was the group’s most commercially successful album to date, and is considered by many as an artistic high point for the band. The success of Stand secured the group a slot at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival. They performed from 3:30 AM- 4:20 AM on Sunday, August 17, and were seen as a clear highlight of the festival.
Aja (pronounced “Asia) was Steely Dan’s most commercially successful album, peaking at No. 3 on the US Charts, and eventually selling over 5 million copies. It was also ranked by Rolling Stone as the No. 145 on their Greatest Albums of All Time list. “Peg” was the lead single off Aja, and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Single Charts. The guitar solo on this track was attempted by seven top studio session guitarists. After six hours working on the solo, Jay Graydon’s part was deemed acceptable.
From the brand new De La Soul album, which was released today!
The Headhunters were a jazz-funk group perhaps best known for the records they recorded as the backing band for Herbie Hancock in the 70s. The group was assembled by Hancock in 1973 while recording the Head Hunters release. The band’s lineup consistently changed throughout the years, with only Bennie Maupin and Bill Summers acting as constant members. Survival of the Fittest was the band’s first release without Hancock, and features the hit single “God Made Me Funky,” which has been sampled by many rappers, including Eric B. & Rakim, N.W.A., and Biz Markie.
Written by Ahmet Ertegun and Betty Nelson (the wife of Ben E. King), “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)” was the lead-off track from Ben E. King’s third studio LP, Don’t Play That Song. The song peaked at No. 2 on the US R&B Charts, and No. 11 on the Pop Charts when released as the fifth single from the album. Don’t Play That Song also featured Ben E. King’s colossal hit “Stand By Me,” which remains among his most notable tracks.
The Jarmels were a doo-wop group formed in 1959 in Richmond, Virginia, best remembered for their sole hit “A Little Bit of Soap.” The group’s big break occurred in 1960, when Ben E. King invited the group to come to New York and meet with various record companies. They signed with Laurie Records, and were the first African-American group Laurie had signed to that point. Written by Bert Berns, The Jarmels’ version of “A Little Bit of Soap” reached No. 7 on the R&B Charts, and No. 12 on the Pop Charts in 1961.
The People’s Choice were a funk band formed in Philadelphia in 1971. The band’s debut single, “I Likes to Do It,” hit No. 9 on the US R&B Charts-- on the strength of that hit, they were signed to Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International Records (The Sound of Philadelphia). The band’s biggest hit was 1975’s “Do It Any Way You Wanna,” which sold over 1 million copies in three months, and was certified gold by the RIAA. That lineup of the band broke up in 1983.
Duke Williams and the Extremes were a seven-piece funk ensemble, featuring several session players who had worked on various Gamble & Huff recordings. This track, “Chinese Chicken,” was originally released as the b-side to “I’ve Been Lovin’ You For Too Long (To Stop Now),” both of which were featured on the band’s 1973 debut album, Monkey In a Silk Suit is Still a Monkey. “Chinese Chicken” was included on one of the highly influential Ultimate Breaks and Bats compilations.
Ex-Animals frontman Eric Burdon joined War after the Animals dissolved in late 1968. The band released two successful albums in the following years. In the middle of their 1970 European tour, Jimi Hendrix joined the band onstage for an extended jam session. Just hours later, Hendrix passed away, making the appearance during the War set his final musical performance. After Hendrix’s death, Burdon would often break down on stage, eventually leaving the band in the midst of the European tour, reportedly citing exhaustion as cause. This track, “Magic Mountain,” comes from a compilation released five years after Burdon left the group, compiling various unreleased or otherwise hard to find tracks. This track was issued as a single.
Osmium was Parliament’s first studio album, released in 1970. Founded as a doo wop vocal group based in a barber shop, Parliament (then called The Parliaments) had a hit single with “(I Wanna) Testify” in 1967. To capitalize on the success of the hit, George Clinton put together a backing band, including Eddie Hazel and Billy Bass Nelson. After being forced to change their name due to a lawsuit, Parliament released Osmium, which is said to have more in common with Funkadelic record than the later, perhaps less experimental Parliament records.
Though originally a throw away b-side (“Reward” was the a-side), Melvin Bliss’s “Synthetic Substitution” took on second life after being sampled by Ultramagnetic MCs in the track “Ego Trippin.” It has since become one of the most sampled tracks of all time, sampled at least several hundred times (WhoSampled.com states the number as high as 400), including in Guru’s “Transit Ride,” “O.G. Original Gangster” by Ice-T, and “MMMBop” by Hanson.
This 1974 single from Brother Soul was the third of four singles released by the Bronx group in as many years. “Cookies” remains their most well known, and often sampled track. Other tracks include: “Train Song,” “Life Is Like a Maze,” “Mister Boogie,” and “Do It Good.”
Vocals from the first verse of the Hall & Oates track are used as a hook in the De La track, first at 0:50. Also, the keyboard from is used throughout the track, in addition to the bass, first at 0:07.
The De La track uses this driving drum beat as its main percussion, starting at 0:07
The opening guitar hook is sped up and used throughout the De La track, first coming in at 0:15.
The brass hook from 0:08 is co-opted as the first couple seconds of the De La track, while the keyboard from 0:05 features throughout, first at 0:24.
Funky 4+1, out of The Bronx, was a history making hip hop group, being the first to be signed to a record deal and perform on national television. “That’s the Joint” was there most significant hit, featuring lots of back and forth rhymes and a funky instrumental. The group was also notable for having a female MC in Sha Rock.
Plug One references the group/track, discussing how things have changed since the days of the song, with some people using crack to get the same high they used to get from just a joint.
Famous “ohhhhh” vocal hook is used a couple times in the song, first at 0:06.
The Chicago trio’s platinum, Grammy winning hit was written by Maurice White and Al McKay of Earth, Wind, & Fire, The song was once the subject of litigation as part of Mariah Carey’s song “Emotions” sounded suspiciously close to the famous vocal hook sampled here.
Plug Two does an acapella rendition of the hook from the theme song at 2:00.
Iconic theme song from the radio and later television show starting in the 1950s and trudging on in various forms into the new millennium. The famous four note sequence dates back to Rozsa’s work on the 1946 film “The Killers.”