13 Songs that Interpolate other songs

this video is sponsored by HD piano learn the best songs on piano at hdpiano.com interpolation is when you take part of an existing composition and use it as part of a new piece of music for example seven rings by Arianda Grande interpolates The Melody of my favorite things from The Sound of Music getting in trouble cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudles doorbells and sleigh bell and schnit with [Music] noodles my things but Seven Rings isn't a cover of my favorite things it's a new song

based on an extract of my favorite things a similar example is play that song by train which interpolates the main Melody from the 1938 hogi carmichel song Heart and Soul play that song the one that makes me go all night long heart and soul I fell in love with you and beyond the obvious stylistic changes train have set the old Melody to new chords and new lyrics so here with play that song by train and seven rings by arand De Grande they are repurposing an existing Melody they are interpolating

an existing Melody into a whole new song but interpolation isn't limited just to Melody you could also interpolate the accompaniment of an older song for example Amy wi House's 2007 track Tears Dry on their own interpolates the instrumental of the mtown classic ain't no mountain high enough originally performed by Marvin Gay and Tammy Terrell a that we know andret our God to ain't no valley L ain't no River wi baby a very famous example of interpolation is kio's 1995 track Gangsters Paradise whi

ch interpolates Stevie W's 1976 track Pastime [Music] Paradise they've been spending most their Liv living in a past time paradise why are we so blind to see tell me who are live now on hearing those two tracks side by side you might have described Gangster's Paradise as being based on a sample but no this is interpolation not sampling so what's the difference because these two techniques are certainly very similar well sampling is when we take a literal sample of the original recording and use

it as part of a new track but interpolation doesn't involve the recording it involves the composition itself inter interpolation is like a cover song but a very heavily adapted cover song instead of taking an excerpt from the recording like we do with sampling interpolation involves taking an excerpt from the original composition from the song itself so here with Gangster's Paradise although it sounds very similar to Stevie W's original song all the instrumentation has been re-recorded what we'r

e hearing is an interpolation of the underlying composition a similar example is Rappers Delight by Sugar Hill Gang which is based on the song Good Times by Sheik I am one m and I like to sing [Music] hello it's easy to assume that what we're hearing here on rapper Delight is a direct sample of the original Chic recording but in fact suar Hill Gang are wrapping over a re-recording of good times so this is an interpolation not a sample now you might be wondering with all of these examples of inte

rpolation does the original songwriter get credit and royalties when their song is interpolated into a new song and the answer is yes or at least they should be with all of the examples we've looked at so far the original songwriters have been included as songwriters on the new track with Rapper's Delight though it did take the threat of legal action to appropriately credit the original songwriters the Sugar Hill Gang only added Nar Rogers and Bernard Edwards of Sheik to the credits of the song

When Sheik threatened to take them to court even if the inter interpolation is very brief very fleeting record labels and Publishers will tend to credit the songwriter of The interpolated song to avoid any future legal repercussions for example We Belong Together by Mariah KY features this brief quote of Bobby wac song If You Think You're Lonely [Music] Now despite being barely two bars of Melody borrowed from the Bobby wac song The songwriters of that Bobby wac song are all credited on We Belon

g Together in fact we belong together features yet another even shorter melodic quote this time from the 1987 song two occasions by the deal I only think of [Music] you and once again the songwriters of two occasions have been credited on We Belong Together what's clever about these interpolations is they are literally soundtracking what's happening in the story of the lyrics in the lyric the protagonist is listening to the radio and we're hearing quotes of the songs that she's hearing on the ra

dio for example the quote of the Bobby WX song is proceeded with the lyric Bobby WX on the radio saying to Me If You Think You're Lonely [Music] Now and then once again in the next stter we have I turn the dial trying to catch a break and then I hear baby face before we then hear the quote of two occasions and only baby face was a member of the band The Deal who performed two occasions in many of my videos I use notation sheet music to illustrate what I'm talking about but you don't have to be a

ble to read notation to be a great musician and actually for the first five or six years of my piano career I didn't know how to read sheet music and would learn songs instead using YouTube tutorials including those by HD piano HD piano presents songs with this beautifully visualized format making it easy to learn the songs without any knowledge of sheet music they have a massive library of songs which actually includes many of the songs we've talked about in today's video so if you want to lear

n new songs at the piano and simultaneously help this channel out then do follow the link down below to HD piano see if you can guess which 2000's indie rock song has been interpolated into this [Music] track [Music] that was the song Lasting Love by sagala and James Arthur and it interpolates the synth Melody from The Track Time to Pretend by [Music] MGMT Gwen Stefani's 2004 hit song Rich Girl interpolates an extract of Melody from If I Were a Rich Man from the 1964 musical FID on the roof girl

see I all the in the world If I Were a Rich Man all day long I if I were a wealthy man but in fact technically Gwen Stefani didn't interpolate Fiddler on the Roof because her song Rich gal is itself a reworking of a different song by the same Title by the British Duo Luchi L and Mickey W was a [Music] so it was actually this song that interpolated Fiddler on the Roof and then Gwen Stefani based her song on this song a common reason why a song may interpolate another song instead of just samplin

g it is to save on costs using a sample of an existing recording generally costs more than just re-recording that part this is because the original recording of the song contains two different copyrights the copyright of the composition the song and the copyright of the recording so if you re-record a song instead of sampling the original recording you only have to deal with clearing one of those two copyrights for example Robbie Williams 1998 track Millennium was written around the iconic strin

gs intro to the James Bond song You Only Live Twice composed by John [Music] Barry the demo version of Millennium was based on an actual sample of that Bond theme but when they realized that re-recording the strings intro would be reportedly a tenth of the cost of Licensing the original recording they opted to do that instead many Robbie Williams songs feature interpolation for example his 2000 track Supreme actually features two different interpolations the instrumental post chorus section of t

he song interpolates the strings Melody from Gloria gain's disco classic I Will [Music] Survive and the main strings Motif that Supreme is based on is an excerpt from the theme to The 1970 film darier doil Cano another example of where an older song has been interpolated I.E re-recorded instead of sampled to save on costs and hassle is Gold Digger by Kaner West gold digger is based on an excerpt from Ray Charles's 1954 song I've Got a Woman she me money when [Music] I'm she Golding with nooke in

itially planned on sampling the original Ray Charles record but then after watching the Ray Charles biopic Ray West had the idea to just ask Jamie Fox instead who portrayed Ray Charles in the film to sing the excerpt from I've got a woman and then they could use that in place of the sample Rihanna's 2007 song Shut Up and Drive features a very subtle interpolation the fuzzy octave jumping riff that underpins the chorus of shut up and drive is actually lifted from new 's 1983 Classic Blue Monday o

h you know what me better than a [Music] Li and the last example of interpolation we'll look at today is boni's 1986 song You Give Love a Bad Name the main chorus Melody of bonjovi song is lifted from the Bonnie Tyler song if you were a woman and I was a man which had come out earlier that same year if you were a woman and I was shout to the heart and you're late be now this example of interpolation is really interesting because both of these songs were written by the same person Desmond child s

o really this isn't an interpolation it's a rewriting as Desmond child explains in this clip after if you were a woman by Bonny Tyler didn't sell as well as he thought it would he chose to effectively rewrite the song for Bon Joi so the song would have a second chance at success they were making an album called faster than the speed of light and Jim Steinman called me and he said okay I want a special song but it really wasn't the hit that I wanted it to be because I thought it I mean when when

I wrote I said okay this is going to be the biggest song of all time so um after that that album came and left I went to work with a a couple of long hair guys from New Jersey uh called John bonjovi and Richie Sambora and I sort of wanted you know I was kind of sore at the uh record company for not really pushing that song and I said I'm going to prove that that song's a hit and so we did so you wrote it again so we wrote it again yeah interestingly years later this chorus Melody used in both th

e bonny tyer and the bonjovi song Would once again serve as the chorus Melody to yet another big pop hit the 2020 song Kings and Queens by AA Max so that's interpolation very similar to sampling but not quite the same technique if you can think of any other examples of songs that interpolate elements from other songs then do mention them down below in the [Music] comments [Music] [Laughter] [Music]