Glorious thieving thievers who thieve: Great musical samples

Sheryl Crow's riff in "All I Wanna Do" also has a striking resemblance to the Hollies' "Long Cool Woman," particularly around 1:21.

 

The riff in the Kinks' "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" is a pretty straight rip of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" beginning at 1:00 when the guitars come in

 

every drum beat, solo ever:

 

Don't forget this staple from the late 1980s and early 1990s that originated from James Brown:

This is the source track (at 1:21 and a fraction):

(The late, great Lyn Collins deserves a bigger credit for vocals. Also, Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock in 1988 were probably the first to put the drum break and the vocal bars together and it went from there.)

 

Blue Monday sampled Kraftwerk's "Uranium" ("Uran" in echt Deutsch). The "aaaahhhh" background is a direct rip.

 

No Diggity, which sampled Grandma’s Hands by Bill Withers.

 

This gem from Trickbaby uses an unexpected sample at 0:24.

 

Stealers Wheel?

 

Yep!

 

Blues Traveler's "Hook," which is an awesome piece of satire and one of the all-time great musical troll jobs, famously used the "Canon in D" structure that hundreds of other songs have been based off of for several centuries.

 

Pouring a 40 for Ken Ober.

P's Canon is everywhere, I tell you. EVERYWHERE!

 

I dunno. It seems "Canon in D" has been Exhibit A in music theory classes for eons.

Extremely low-hanging fruit, and proof that it's damned hard to prove in a U.S. court of law that chord progressions are a ripoff.