3 One-Hit Wonders From the 1960s You Didn’t Know Were Sampled by Other Songs

You know that feeling when you’re listening to a song but suddenly you hear another song within it? It’s like you’re hearing the sonic representation of a Russian nesting doll. It happens all the time these days, often when a track samples another.

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It’s that dynamic we want to investigate here below. We wanted to dive into three occasions from back in the day when an older song was sampled by one more recent. Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders from the 1960s you didn’t know were sampled by other songs.

“Batman Theme” by Neal Hefti from ‘Batman Theme And 11 Other Bat Songs’ (1966)

Batman has been a character in popular culture for what seems like a century. He has shown up in many incarnations, from live action TV shows to cartoons to movies. And in 1995, rapper Method Man sampled the theme song from the 1960s Batman sitcom for his 1995 track, “The Riddler”. You can hear that theme song above and you can check out Method Man’s slowed-down sample for his offering here. It’s never a bad time for Batman and it’s never a bad time for Method Man.

“I Will Follow Him” by Little Peggy March from ‘I Will Follow Him’ (1963)

Fans of the Detroit rapper Eminem may have noticed a familiar chord structure in one of the sharp-tongued songwriter’s early hits. That’s right, Em’s track “Guilty Conscience” featured a chord structure plucked right from Little Peggy March and her tune “I Will Follow Him”. In the chorus for his song, Eminem even plays with the idea in his lyrics, ending one line in the refrain with “I’ll follow” just as Peggy would sing.

“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly from ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ (1968)

When the rapper Nas released his 2006 album, Hip Hop Is Dead, fans of 1960s rock music likely perked up when they heard the title song. The track, which was produced by will.i.am, is a banger. But of course it is, the song it took from was also catchy and pounding. There is something terrific when rock meets rap and this song proves that so.

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