Sampled [Import]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 27, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Import
• ASIN: B0000506E8
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #401,550 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. I Got The...

2. It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me

3. Love Is You

4. Let Me Be Your Lover

5. Let Me Down Easy

6. Fate

7. Everyman

8. Reach Up

9. Candy

10. Superfreak

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Who Is He and What Is He to You?

2. Jim on the Move

3. Chase the Devil

4. Celebration Suite

5. Bolivar

6. Expansions

7. Smokey Joe's La La

8. Beat Girl

9. Soul Bossa Nova [Original Mix]

10. The Magic Number

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

This 40 track UK compilation brings together an amazing selection of rare sought after and must have soul. funk, disco and jazz originals including, 'Troubled So Hard'-Vera Hall (from Moby's 'Natural Blues'), 'Take Yo' Praise'-Camille Yarbrough (from Fatb

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sum of the whole equals more than the steal, November 19, 2000

By 

timbearcub / tim baker (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sampled (Audio CD)

This is a great compilation of rare tracks that have been sampled by the great and not so great (Moby, Fatboy Slim, Robbie Williams, LL Cool J, Gang Starr, Massive Attack - who get 2 (1) entries!), from old-skool disco (Musique, Carol Williams, Creative Source), reggae (the Prodigy-sampled Max Romeo's Chase the Devil), blaxploitation-style jazz and funk (Lonnie Liston Smith, Young Holt Unlimited, Herbie Hancock, Marlena Shaw) , to cheesy 50's songs (Patti Page)!

Loads of snippets these songs have turned up on dance, pop, and hip-hop tracks...yes even the infamous (and litigious!) Funky Drummer by James Brown is here!

Really the shocking thing is how much better most of these songs are than the modern sampled versions, and how much they use these songs as a 'crutch' and rely on their relative obscurity of mainly black artist originals...I mean Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim IS Sliced tomatoes by the Just brothers, with an annoying shouty vocal and modern drums. Nothing original there, but the track the sample's taken from is great funky ska-inflected surfer style groove. And Moby's lifted whole vocal segments from Troubled so hard by Vera Hall for his 'Natural Blues'. What's the originality in stealing whole chunks from a emotional spiritual/gospel tune with no backing music?!?

Other standout tracks are Marlena Shaw's 'Woman of the Ghetto' (sampled for Blueboy's 'Remember Me' which cruelly took all of the black-power politics OUT and used the ding-ding-ga-ding vocal!), Ain't there something money can't buy by Young holt unlimited, sampled by Gang Starr's Love sick, but an equally or better track...and much more political than the hip-hop track.

Take Yo' Praise by Camille Yarbrough, again ripped off by Fatboy Slim for the vocal to 'Praise You', the only redeeming feature being that he's brought to our attention a great track that otherwise may be overlooked...Soup for One by Chic which became the ultra-cheesy Lady by Modjo, and Expansions by Lonnie Liston Smith, for which the bass groove was taken for the equally sample-political 'Talkin' all that Jazz' by Stetsasonic...

The one thing that does amaze is the tiny loops that go to make up whole songs, and for this I think there is some originality, rather than Fatboy's and Moby's lifting of whole vocal riffs: that filter-disco-groove that made Stardust's Music Sounds Better with You so cool is actually a tiny snippet from Fate by Chaka Khan, and similarly an amazing usse of a miniscule sample is Spiller's Groovejet which uses a tiny intro bit and congas from the disco-soul of Love is you by Carol Williams. This kind of reconstruction I can see some worth and skill in, like Black Box totally recreating another track from Loleatta Hollaway's Love Sensation; actually an amazing technical (if dubious) task.

I'd highly recommend this double CD set: the sum of the whole of this compilation equals much more than all of the more famous tracks put together.

These tracks and artists deserve much more recognition than a 2-second riff...it's ideal for sample trainspotters, but it's not an academic exercise as the original tunes are so great that ANYBODY should have this.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very original, January 22, 2001

By 

cp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sampled (Audio CD)

If you've ever wondered who sampled what for which hits, this CD is your answer. You'll be surprised (or at least I was) by how many artists sample tracks that we all assume they wrote in the first place. Fatboy Slim, Massive Attack, Eminem and many others have pumped all the tunes on this CD to transform them into huge hits. My personal favourites: the original Praise You (very slow, very chilled) and the original Mo'Money by Notorious BIG which is a fantastic disco track by Diana Ross. Other tracks are either too obscure and you can barely make out what was sampled, or way too similar to the sampled version (ie MC Hammer took a song called "Superfreak", did absolutely nothing to it, and released it as Can't Touch This) This is a brilliant CD and I'd say that 90% of the tracks sound much better than the rehashed versions.