By Bruce Warren, Program Director for WXPN

James Brown wasn’t only known as the Godfather of Soul and the hardest working man in showbiz. He’s also known as one of the most sampled musicians in music. His song “Funky Drummer” is perhaps his most sampled song. It was recorded on November 20, 1969 and originally released on King Records as a two-part 45 in March 1970. Despite rising to #20 on the R&B chart and #51 on the pop chart, it did not receive an album release until the 1986 compilation, In The Jungle Groove. The drummer was the legendary Clyde Stubblefield who for years turned out some of the tightest grooves for JB. Currently, Stubblefield lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and in addition to doing session work and teaching drums is the regular drummer in the house band for Michael Feldman’s “Whad’ya Know.”

According to the blog Sample Spotters here’s a list of some of the artists who have sampled the song: A Tribe Called Quest, the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Coldcut, Sinead O’Connor, 2 Live Crew, De La Soul, Depeche Mode, Digable Planets, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Dr. Dre, Fine Young Cannibals, Deep Forest, Geto Boys, Ice Cube, Ice T, George Michael, Sublime, New Order, Nas, Milli Vanilli, MC Lyte, Marky Mark, Nine Inch Nails, Public Enemy, Prince, NWA, Stetsasonic, and many others.