3 Classic Tracks Bound for Dance and EDM Sampling

Rather than releasing straight remixes, dance and EDM artists have shown a penchant for sampling some truly catchy classics of late. Jax Jones and Raye’s You Don’t Know Me sampled its beat from M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade’s Body Language, David Guetta’s I’m Good featuring Bebe Rexha owes a lot to Eiffel 65’s Blue, Avicii’s SOS with Aloe Blacc offers a reinterpretation of TLC’s No Scrubs, and Charli XCX’s Used to Know Me lends from Robin S. Show Me Love, to name a few.

Still, there are many incredible songs out there just waiting for modern artists to sample them, from still easily identifiable and catchy tunes to more subtle ones that earned a great deal of praise upon release. These are the songs that could be easily drawn from to help create a smash hit dance track.

La Bamba

A song that has its origins in 1930s Mexico, La Bamba reached a global audience in 1958 when Ritchie Valens released his rock and roll spin as the B-side to what was expected to be the bigger hit, Donna. Now, it’s the song most associated with the classic artist and even features as the core of his real money online casino game.

In Ritchie Valens: La Bamba, you can listen to Donna, Come On, Let’s Go, and We Belong Together throughout, with the iconic La Bamba track saved for the main feature and big wins. It was recently sampled by Brazilian superstar Anitta in Gimme Your Number, and there’s a good HBz remix of the Los Lobos version with over 540,000 views on YouTube, demonstrating how versatile and catchy the core of the song has become.

Tubthumping

It’s one of those songs that you’d definitely recognize but don’t really have any reason to know the name for. Tubthumping, by Chumbawamba, is a classic British rock song that was inspired by ordinary people, resilience, and a pub in Leeds. Certainly not an overly poetic song, but the hook “I get knocked down, but I get up again” is timeless.

In 2017, it was included in the list of best songs turning 20 that year by the UK’s official charts website, but has been sparingly remixed or sampled. Weird Al Yankovic probably boasts the most high-profile sampling of the adrenaline-pumping track, but it’s yet to break through as a core sample in a major EDM or dance release. 

There She Goes

Labeled “as close to perfection” as an English songwriter has reached since the 60s, the 1988 hit from rock band The La’s has all of the right hooks and beats to be sampled by modern artists. It’s been covered and sampled by several pop bands and artists, including The Wombats, Sixpence, and Robbie Williams, but there’s little, even by way of remixes, from dance or EDM artists.

Rock and Roll Part 2, There She Goes, and especially La Bamba all have that instant recognisability even with modern audiences that make them prime targets for even a three-second sample in another track. Some artists have already proven the draw of these songs in their own renditions, but more can be done with a tactical sampling.