I'm not so sure if the lawsuit was nonsensical, but when one considers that in the video for that song, the flutist is sitting in a tree as he plays the Kookaburra riff it becomes obvious that the riff being identical (albeit being played over a minor chord instead of a major chord) isn't mere coincidence.
@@johncrisman3400 In fairness, "Kookaburra in the old gum tree" is, like, a well-known traditional melody... that just happened to still be in copyright. A bit like if, until recently, you'd included "Happy Birthday" in a song. Like, everyone sings Happy Birthday, it's a well-known traditional melody that you'd be forgiven for not knowing that, until fairly recently, it was actually in copyright. I feel "Kookaburra" is a similar case. It's a modern "traditional song", that folks might not even realise that it is still technically within copyright, particularly with its prevalence. I mean, the law is the law. So there was every right in bringing the lawsuit on a copyrighted track. But, ah, you know, in reality - as with "Happy Birthday", which was sung by everyone everywhere all the time, whilst still in copyright - folks don't realise how new a song actually is and wrongly presume it's centuries old, so well out of copyright by now, surely?
Elvis was famous for interpolation. O Sole Mio became It's Now or Never, Plaisir d'Amour became I Can't Help Falling In Love (WIth You) and Aura Lee became Love Me Tender.
Elvis didn't write his songs, as most pop artists of the time... Instead record companies had teams of song writers like session musicians, so interpolation makes a lot of sense. As does many of the songs Elvis made hits being done by other artists first... if the song fails with them, Elvis will make it a hit... Luckily for Elvis, he was famous for several other things instead. 😆
Those strike me as slightly different, because they come from different traditions. Putting words in your language to a tune from another language is different from recycling a tune that's already sold well in your own tradition. The one strikes me as cosmopolitan, the other as a stale rip-off.
One example has to be "Talk" by Coldplay, interpolated from Kraftwerk's "Computer Love". The iconic keyboard riff is moved to a guitar. Coldplay famously wrote to Kraftwerk to ask permission, and got an envelope back with a piece of paper inside with just the word YES on it. Both are excellent in my view, and I'm not a Coldplay fan at all.
Speaking of Kraftwerk, the keyboard riff from Trans Europe Express was interpolated on Planet Rock (1982) by the Soul Sonic Force, led by Afrika Bambataa, one of the first hip hop records released during the first wave of breakdance mania which would skyrocket to huge amounts of popularity in 1983
My understanding is Dr. Dre is said to have preferred re-recording “samples” for better control over the sound, but methinks other motives were in play.
In fairness, it DOES give you better control of the sound within the recording. Like you can control the mix and EQ on the individual parts that you can't do with a sample (actually, with AI isolating tracks, you probably could do that now, but not traditionally so). BUT, sure, the primary "control" he's probably coveting is financial, then the control of the sound comes a healthy second to that.
What else do you do when your entire producer catalogue is remixing a better musicians work? Funkadelic made NWA. Thank George Clinton and Bootsy for 70% of all music made in rap or pop after 1990
@@klaxoncow " actually, with AI isolating tracks, you probably could do that now, but not traditionally so." So far, I have found the artefacts are kinda... bad. But as a creative methodology it can work i guess. I don't sample, personally. I've certainly recreated samples and parts, but they were percussive.
Eric Prydz’ “Call On Me” is based on Steve Winwood’s “Valerie” and originally used a sample, but Steve liked it so much re-recorded his vocals for the song
For anyone interested in musical theatre examples, Michael in the Bathroom from Be More Chill interpolates I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston and I Don’t Need Your Love from Six interpolates Independent Woman by Destiny’s Child
Radiohead 'Creep' and 'The air that I breathe' Comes to mind. It's an interesting one, because they've interpolated from the Hollie's version which isn't the original to begin with; and so ended up settling credits with Albert Hammond for the original, even though they'd ironically probably never even heard that version. Then Lana Del Rey interpolated Creep with 'Get Free' - creating a unique situation of an interpolated song three times removed from the original. Lord knows how they'd decide royalties on that one
@@guascamsb8138 possibly not but Albert Hammond sued Radiohead, and Radiohead sued Lana del Rey - so I don't know of any other examples where both songs have ended up in a lawsuit over credits.
Yes, most of the examples used here I would call quotes; an interpolation involves combining one theme with another through counterpoint, or interspersed within another melody, borrowing a bassline but inventing new music upon could also qualify as interpolation.
John Lennon actually worked with Bowie on the Album, especially on Fame. Bowie said he used the line as a tribute to Lennon. He also covered Lennon's Across The Universe on the Album with Lennon's help.
A great interpolation is Sugarbabes “Freak like me” which repurposed Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric”. I love the original but the slightly faster tempo and more modern synth sounds in Sugarbabes version are great too.
That’s an example of a 'mashup'. It’s like 2 cover versions in 1. The words are a cover of the Adina Howard song and the music is Are Friends Electric. The track started as a mashup using all the original but the producer (Richard X) couldn’t get permission to release it with the sampled vocals, so he got the vocals re-recorded and released it as a Sugababes track.
Now, when I try to remember a song and start hearing it in my head, my neural implant recognizes that as an interpolation of a protected song and sends a copyright strike violation report to the holder and also debits my bank account accordingly.
Can you tackle "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas interpolating/ripping-off "I'm Going to Leave You" by Journey? Journey opened for Kansas in 1975 and played the song as a work in progress. "Look into the Future" came out in January 1976, and "Leftoeverture" came out in October 1976.
I love your videos! I love your explanations of the differences and the similaritys, and almost always there's a new song going into my playlist after watching your videos!
Joni Mitchell's "Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody" interpolates Unchained Melody and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, in the same way as in the Mariah Carey example- "We'd be Playing, 'You give your love so sweetly,' one more time". But the COOL THING IS Joni sang on the original Carole King recording of WYSLMT
I think it’s a stretch to describe either of these as “interpolation”. The word implies intent - a conscious decision to quote another work within your own. There is a resemblance here for sure. But in the case of “All my Loving”, it’s way too much of a generic melodic movement - just going down the major scale and then up again to resolve on the tonic - to conclude it’s anything more than a coincidence. Why would anybody deliberately “quote” something this non-distinctive and unremarkable? As for “In My Life”, sure the chord sequence is a little reminiscent of Pachebel’s Canon in D, just like a thousand other pop songs are. But it’s not the same. Martin was clearly trying to evoke a generic “baroque” sound in the piano solo, and one of the guys he would be looking to for inspiration would be Pachelbel. But he doesn’t directly quote him, which is what an interpolation is.
I agree with @@fromchomleystreet . But maybe we could say that the Beatles did employ interpolation in eg the use of La Marseillaise at the beginning of All You Need Is Love and the same song's use of "In The Mood"," Greensleeves" and their own "She Loves You" at the end. Also George Harrison's use of "Sorrow" by the Merseys in All Too Much etc. etc. Like most stuff in popular music The Beatles will have done it somewhere (I am only half joking.)
I actually learned this definition of interpolation from the liner notes of Fall Out Boy’s "Infinity On High" album! They interpolate Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in their song Hum Hallelujah
Nile Rodgers has said in interview that he was sure Rapper's Delight DID sample the recording of Good Times, in particular compare string motif at 4.19 on Rapper's Delight 12" to 3.47 on Good Times.
Take Me Home Tonight, Eddie Money “The song's chorus interpolates the Ronettes' 1963 hit "Be My Baby", with original vocalist Ronnie Spector providing uncredited vocals and reprising her role.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home_Tonight_(song))
I noticed in some of my compilation albums (like the Now That's What I Call Classic Rock and such) it's credited as "Take Me Home Tonight/Be My Baby", I wonder if that was a legal thing done after the fact because he didn't give Ronnie Spector credit originally. I mean, it should have been fairly obvious, he does what Mariah Carey does in David's example and says "Just like Ronnie says" before she sings "be my little baby"
On the Dresden Dolls' first album, Amanda Palmer has a couple clever moments of interpolation. The reason I call them "clever" is that they rise organically out of the lyrics. In "Good Day," she sings "I'd like to do more than survive, I'd like to rub it in your face." At the moment she sings this, the music and melody match up with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Similarly, in a later track called "Jeep Song," she is lamenting about frequently seeing cars that remind her of her ex-lover's red Jeep. She sings "I see a red Jeep and I want to paint it black." At that moment, the music matches the verse of "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones. The reason I like these two examples is that neither feels like an arbitrary reference for reference's sake. Both completely fit the story, mood, and harmony of the song. It feels like she was writing lyrics and realized she could incorporate the reference, rather than building her song around the reference the way some of these other examples seem to have originated. It feels closer to the Mariah Carey example than the Train example.
woah! I love Train and specifically love the song "Play that song" The amount of research you put into this is astounding! I've been watching your videos for quite a while now especially the ones where you talk about the Beatles....
Islands in the Stream was interpolated to Ghetto Superstar. It's the song that taught me about the practice. Also Amish Paradise being a parody of an interpolation is so good. How many layers deep can you go?
My favorite interpolation is Gloria (In Excelsis Deo) by Patti Smith, which heavily interpolates the chorus and instrumental backing to Gloria by Them.
Billy Joel used the melody and harmony from the second movement of Beethoven's Sonata 'Pathétique for the chorus of This Night from An Innocent Man album. Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine were successfully (I think) sued by The Rolling Stones for using the words 'Goodbye Ruby Tuesday', not even the melody or the harmony from the song, in their 1991 song 'After the Watershed'. I think the same song also interpolated the bass riff from Satisfaction.
@howtodoitdude1662 The composers David covered in the video here also gave the original songwriters credit. I don't think that's the differentiation for interpolation. [edits: typos]
I think we could say “whiter shade of pale” by procol harum is a good interpolation of “air” by Bach. There’s an incredible Ava Max/Bon Jovi mashup on TH-cam.
Thinking of the AJJ song "People II: The Reckoning" which, after three original verses and a bridge, Sean Bonnette begins singing a depressing twisted version of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson. I'm curious if that section would count as parody or only interpolation. Not only does it borrow the melody, but some of the lyrics.
I think it counts as interpolation since it changes some words and may even change a chord or two. Plus it only supplements the song at its end. So, good example 😊
That is a good one! Right before reading this comment I was thinking of a different AJJ song, the part in survival song where Sean sings Do Re Mi by Woody Guthrie, and then immediately afterward says "we totally ripped off a man named Woody Guthrie"
Interestingly, the strings from the „Dernier Domicile Connu“ film were also sampled by both Missy Eliot on „All ´N My Grill“ and Mix Master Mike on „Surprize Packidge“, both released in 1999. Maybe that‘s where Robbie‘s songwriting team got the idea.
I don't think it is a coincidence that I hate most of the examples that you use. I respect the practice of sampling, I also respect covering a song (as long as you give it a clear new feel). In most of the examples though, the use of a well known piece of music is not meant as an homage, but feels more like a cheap way to score some recognition.
He explained why it's literally not cheap. They still have to pay for the composition,and they still transform the work. I wish people would stop thinking of music as a competition. Though you're allowed to dislike what you want.
It's a completely new term from the last few years. As popular music continues to run out of steam, theft is all many of them have left. I've been a professional musician and engineer, and I only heard the term recently.
Musicians have always quoted other songs. Classical composers did it. Jazz musicians do it. I hear rock guitarists do it all the time in solos. Ultimately certain musical phrases become part of our collective consciousness. "My favorite things" is absolutely an example of this phenomenon. So are most of the examples in this video. Ultimately the question is whether the original composer or songwriter should receive a writing credit for the new song.
12 music notes, hundreds of millions of possibly billions of songs, and you expect each one of those melodies in those songs to all be exactly different? Do you think that classical musicians such as beethoven, mozart, didn’t interpolate based on works they have heard themselves?
All By Myself by Eric Carmen also credits Sergei Rachmaninoff and with very good reason. I actually never know that Rachmaninoff was credited but just looked it up.
I would call it just "quoting". Interpolating in mathematics is composing a function (basically, a polynomial) based on several values (in several points) of some original function. Solution of similar musical task would be rather interesting.
Dick Dale's Misirlou is either a heavily adapted version of Egyptian Girl, or a separate song that is heavily inspired by it. From a legal standpoint it's different enough to qualify as its own thing, but since Misirlou literally means "Egyptian Girl" many think of it as the former. The point is moot, though, as it is long since out of copyright (in fact, it was written long before anybody had any notion of copyright).
I don't have a math degree but none of these examples match the mathematical ideas of extrapolation nor interpolation. extrapolation is extending something beyond it's range, and interpolation is completing something within it's range when you dont have all of the data. in music terms, extrapolation would be adding to a song a part that should go before the intro or after the outro, and interpolation would be adding something to the middle of a song.
"Tainted Love" by Gloria Jones was covered in the 80's by Soft Cell and its accompaniments were interpolated by Fine Young Cannibals in "Good Things." The chorus from "If You could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot was used in Whitney Houston's "The greatest Love of All."
Most people comment how “Flowers” is similar in lyric to “If I Were Your Man”, but I noticed that melodically, I hear only what I can call a reverse interpolation. The hook in Flowers is melodically inverted from the Bruno Mars song. Once you hear it, you can’t unhear it.
Fascinating stuff. I grew up listening to music from Papua New Guinea. While none of the stuff I listened to regularly did it, it was quite common for some artists to interpolate melodies from famous Western songs. Examples I remember hearing included “Can’t help falling in love with you” by Elvis, “Heart of Glass” by Blondie, “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, and “Fernando” by ABBA. Needless to say, none of those artists ever got royalties (or even knew the interpolations existed). I’d be curious if this also is common in other third world country music industries.
3:25 the song "Aserejé" by the Spanish female group "Las Ketchup" is about a guy who, at a club/disco, goes to the DJ to request his favorite song. The lyrics he sings are "Y aserejé-ja-dejé. De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi," which is actually an interpretation of the song "Rapper's Delight" in the part that goes, "I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie. To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock It to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie. To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat". they used this interpolation tecnique
A really great, and perhaps unusual, example of interpolation is in Queen's quite brilliant song 'It's a Hard Life' - the intro is based on an aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci.
Another simply masterful one is Joni Mitchell's Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody. It has such a good reason too, it's reminiscing about listening to Unchained Melody in a cafe as a young person. Just perfectly done
Joe Jackson's Ever After starts with Love Here To Stay. Breaking Us in Two starts with Day by Day. Is She Really Going Out With Him is from Leader of the Pack. He also does answer songs.
My preference for any form of referencing another work is when it serves a creative artistic purpose, which sampling rarely does. Three examples of this in reference to interpolations are: Metallica "quotes" America from West Side Story in Don't Tread On Me, inviting the listener to think more deeply about the themes of the song. Michael Jackson interpolates and overlays two sounds -- a drum fill and a strings hit -- from Yes's Owner Of A Lonely Heart in his song DS so that when it makes you think of that song title, it leads you to add your own commentary to the personality of the main character of DS. On his new album I/O, Peter Gabriel begins his life-doesn't-last-forever song Playing For Time with Chopin's Funeral March. I like to see artists be clever and trust the intelligence of their listeners when they use these kinds of tools.
I don’t know if this counts as “interpolation”, but another famous rock track, the Doors “Light my fire”, also based on the chord progression of “My Favorite Things”, mostly inspired by John Coltrane’s instrumental recording.
another example i thought of is the 2017 hit Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man, which interpolated the 1961 hit Please Mr. Postman by The Marvelettes ^
Good man David thank you for this informative piece on interpolation ❤😊 Paint the town red is a interpolation on the the song Walk on by dionne warwick 😊
The Biggie song Machine Gun Funk at 2:34 Biggie interpolates the line "What's love got to do with it" from the the Tina Turner song What's love Got To Do With It.
These interpolations drive me completely wild. I always hear them when listening to music and repeating the part over and over trying to figure out where the interpolation cones from. The strangest I've found must be the Beat from the song "Alles neu" by german singer Peter Fox in the song "The Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy
Music videos always make me think of how Pink Floyd might be able to fit into their purview. For them, I know Syd Barrett had the more likely times of interpolation. "Interstellar Overdrive", for instance, has its main riff, which I know people have compared to a bit of the theme song to the show Steptoe and Son. But looking past his era, "One of These Days" has been pointed out to have a bit of the Doctor Who theme song in it. But there's also instances of what are really more of rewrites, but I wanted to mention them: "Breathe" from Dark Side of the Moon shares a title and opening line with the earlier Roger Waters solo song "Breathe" from Music from the Body (a soundtrack collaboration with Ron Geesin, though the two primarily didn't appear on the others' songs), and there's also an interesting instance of Roger giving Marianne Faithfull a song he'd written called "Incarceration of a Flower Child", which opens with a line that can be found in "Your Possible Pasts" from the Pink Floyd album The Final Cut (which was basically a Roger Waters solo album anyways). I mean, another Floyd song which has involvement with interpolation is "Fearless (Interpolating You'll Never Walk Alone)" from Meddle, but that seems more of a sample, as the "interpolated" bit was recorded from the crowd at a soccer game, and they likely had no idea they were even being recorded, let alone for a Pink Floyd album. Thinking of Roger, though, he did also interpolate during his solo career. Particularly I can think of the song "Folded Flags" (from the When the Wind Blows soundtrack), which interpolated the song "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix.
You could do a whole video on replayed tracks (and the group that have become to go to ones for it in the UK) - but specifically for when the original samplers wanted more control over a sample. Chemical Brothers - We Got To Try has this exact effect because they wanted to use more of the vocal in the track but couldn't mix it well enough, so the replay meant they could isolate parts they needed.
A lot of music from Disney and Nickelodeon shows interpolates with earlier hit songs. Credits are usually not "formally" given. For example, Nick Jonas - Introducing Me (Camp Rock) interpolates with Jason Mraz - I'm Yours. Miranda Cosgrove - Leave It All To Me (Theme from iCarly) interpolates with Pete Townshend - Face The Face (drums intro). For most of the examples, the interpolation seems to be deliberately broken, but still well recognized.
Are there combinations of notes, note values, and rhythms that have not yet been discovered that can make a melody? What percentage of mathematically possible melodies have already been touched throughout the history of music?
Comparing Bad Company’s opening lines that are also repeated throughout the song Bad Company to Joni Mitchell’s opening and repeated lines in her original piano version of Woodstock I have always felt as though they were copied and then repurposed.
Great Video. All these examples are not accidental occurrences and so what happens if there's an accidental use of previous material? Can the record be pulled without legal issues or other repercussions?
Land down under by Men at Work has a flute interpolation of “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree” which ended up in a completely nonsensical lawsuit
Good example 😊😊
A sad case of predatory corporate lawyers bullying artists with a tragic end. 😢
@@ポールの赤テレ.
Which started off as a question on Spicks and Specks.
I'm not so sure if the lawsuit was nonsensical, but when one considers that in the video for that song, the flutist is sitting in a tree as he plays the Kookaburra riff it becomes obvious that the riff being identical (albeit being played over a minor chord instead of a major chord) isn't mere coincidence.
@@johncrisman3400 In fairness, "Kookaburra in the old gum tree" is, like, a well-known traditional melody... that just happened to still be in copyright.
A bit like if, until recently, you'd included "Happy Birthday" in a song. Like, everyone sings Happy Birthday, it's a well-known traditional melody that you'd be forgiven for not knowing that, until fairly recently, it was actually in copyright.
I feel "Kookaburra" is a similar case. It's a modern "traditional song", that folks might not even realise that it is still technically within copyright, particularly with its prevalence.
I mean, the law is the law. So there was every right in bringing the lawsuit on a copyrighted track. But, ah, you know, in reality - as with "Happy Birthday", which was sung by everyone everywhere all the time, whilst still in copyright - folks don't realise how new a song actually is and wrongly presume it's centuries old, so well out of copyright by now, surely?
I remember when Rich Girl came out, and I would sing Fiddler on the Roof and people asked me why I was singing a Gwen Stefani song.
Elvis was famous for interpolation. O Sole Mio became It's Now or Never, Plaisir d'Amour became I Can't Help Falling In Love (WIth You) and Aura Lee became Love Me Tender.
Elvis didn't write his songs, as most pop artists of the time... Instead record companies had teams of song writers like session musicians, so interpolation makes a lot of sense. As does many of the songs Elvis made hits being done by other artists first... if the song fails with them, Elvis will make it a hit...
Luckily for Elvis, he was famous for several other things instead. 😆
@@nathanweiss5174 Such as...
Those strike me as slightly different, because they come from different traditions. Putting words in your language to a tune from another language is different from recycling a tune that's already sold well in your own tradition. The one strikes me as cosmopolitan, the other as a stale rip-off.
@@DMSProduktionsmost of his hits, can’t help falling in love being one example
@@toddpacker4683 Wasn't what I meant, but E only put his hands into a couple of the songs! He wasn't really a songwriter.
“It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to.” - Jean-Luc Godard
Where you take it from probably cares. As does the copyright office.
British Museum is that you?
"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." - Jean-Luc Picard
I frickin love this series. Keep it up David.
😊😊😊😊
Excellent video and a real eye opener
I'll be happy for 'Another 13 songs that Interpolate other songs..' when you're ready.
One example has to be "Talk" by Coldplay, interpolated from Kraftwerk's "Computer Love". The iconic keyboard riff is moved to a guitar. Coldplay famously wrote to Kraftwerk to ask permission, and got an envelope back with a piece of paper inside with just the word YES on it. Both are excellent in my view, and I'm not a Coldplay fan at all.
Absolutely PERFECT example!
Jay-Z’s “sunshine” interpolated Kraftwerks “man machine”. Don’t know if he asked for permission tho 😂
In fairness Coldplay's question may as well have been "do you want some more money?"
@@IncredibleGoliath Haha! Well that's the cynical view. Perhaps Coldplay just wanted to get it above board rather than go through legal shenanigans.
Speaking of Kraftwerk, the keyboard riff from Trans Europe Express was interpolated on Planet Rock (1982) by the Soul Sonic Force, led by Afrika Bambataa, one of the first hip hop records released during the first wave of breakdance mania which would skyrocket to huge amounts of popularity in 1983
My understanding is Dr. Dre is said to have preferred re-recording “samples” for better control over the sound, but methinks other motives were in play.
I completely agree. But financial "control over the sound" is still the most valuable control!
In fairness, it DOES give you better control of the sound within the recording. Like you can control the mix and EQ on the individual parts that you can't do with a sample (actually, with AI isolating tracks, you probably could do that now, but not traditionally so).
BUT, sure, the primary "control" he's probably coveting is financial, then the control of the sound comes a healthy second to that.
What else do you do when your entire producer catalogue is remixing a better musicians work? Funkadelic made NWA. Thank George Clinton and Bootsy for 70% of all music made in rap or pop after 1990
Many motives were in play. But Dr Dre made it his own sound when doing that.
@@klaxoncow " actually, with AI isolating tracks, you probably could do that now, but not traditionally so."
So far, I have found the artefacts are kinda... bad. But as a creative methodology it can work i guess. I don't sample, personally. I've certainly recreated samples and parts, but they were percussive.
Eric Prydz’ “Call On Me” is based on Steve Winwood’s “Valerie” and originally used a sample, but Steve liked it so much re-recorded his vocals for the song
For anyone interested in musical theatre examples, Michael in the Bathroom from Be More Chill interpolates I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston and I Don’t Need Your Love from Six interpolates Independent Woman by Destiny’s Child
Radiohead 'Creep' and 'The air that I breathe' Comes to mind. It's an interesting one, because they've interpolated from the Hollie's version which isn't the original to begin with; and so ended up settling credits with Albert Hammond for the original, even though they'd ironically probably never even heard that version. Then Lana Del Rey interpolated Creep with 'Get Free' - creating a unique situation of an interpolated song three times removed from the original. Lord knows how they'd decide royalties on that one
very interesting bit of information 👌🏻
I'm guessing this "unique situation" is not that unique... 😅
@@guascamsb8138 possibly not but Albert Hammond sued Radiohead, and Radiohead sued Lana del Rey - so I don't know of any other examples where both songs have ended up in a lawsuit over credits.
Except interpolation doesn't need either song writing credits or royalties. It's legal nonsense for theft.
I guess you could just call it "quoting" like jazz musicians do.
Yes, most of the examples used here I would call quotes; an interpolation involves combining one theme with another through counterpoint, or interspersed within another melody, borrowing a bassline but inventing new music upon could also qualify as interpolation.
Can I quote you on that?
A quote should be a part of the melody, not lifting the entire melody.
This is also known as “stealing” by some IP lawyers, I believe
Or 'copying' or 'ripping off'.
The blue Monday/shut up and drive interpolation blew my mind when I first found out about it-then I couldn’t unhear it. glad you included that one!
AFAIK Shut Up And Drive actually samples a Blue Monday cover version by Orgy. th-cam.com/video/aJZTfl3DmCU/w-d-xo.html
Kid Rock - All Summer Long. Singing about singing "Sweet Home Alabama" and using its riff... while also using the riff from "Werewolves Of London".
Now that songs just lazy
👍🏻
His American badass is justMetallica's Sad But True with new lyrics and as a 12 year old kid I was the only one that seemed to notice
Please more interpolation videos, this was so interesting!
David Bowie quoted "I heard the news today, oh boy" from "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles into his song, "Young Americans."
I heard that on the radio last night a few hours after watching this video.
Yep. That's interpolation right there. And both are great songs.
I have a strong sense that quoting, as Bowie did here, is different to interpolation. One is commentary, the other is theft.
John Lennon actually worked with Bowie on the Album, especially on Fame. Bowie said he used the line as a tribute to Lennon. He also covered Lennon's Across The Universe on the Album with Lennon's help.
I didn't copy my friend's homework, I just "interpolated" it.
man, you're sick
Lol, very cool comment! 😂😅
But you should still give credit to your friend in the homework
As long as you’ve got it, right!
Just don't sample your friend's homework!
I can't believe no one has mentioned "All Summer Long" and "Werewolves of London" and "Sweet Home Alabama"
A great interpolation is Sugarbabes “Freak like me” which repurposed Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric”. I love the original but the slightly faster tempo and more modern synth sounds in Sugarbabes version are great too.
And is in turn, a cover of the Adina Howard version, which interpolates a Bootsy Collins track!
Numan really rated the sugerbabes interpolation too
@@jiggyprawn.
Didn't the Bootsy song sample another song?
That’s an example of a 'mashup'. It’s like 2 cover versions in 1. The words are a cover of the Adina Howard song and the music is Are Friends Electric. The track started as a mashup using all the original but the producer (Richard X) couldn’t get permission to release it with the sampled vocals, so he got the vocals re-recorded and released it as a Sugababes track.
@@APH1991 I don't know. I'm not very familiar with his work.
Now, when I try to remember a song and start hearing it in my head, my neural implant recognizes that as an interpolation of a protected song and sends a copyright strike violation report to the holder and also debits my bank account accordingly.
Haha this is perfect.
Can you tackle "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas interpolating/ripping-off "I'm Going to Leave You" by Journey? Journey opened for Kansas in 1975 and played the song as a work in progress. "Look into the Future" came out in January 1976, and "Leftoeverture" came out in October 1976.
I love your videos! I love your explanations of the differences and the similaritys, and almost always there's a new song going into my playlist after watching your videos!
Excellent 😀😀
Excellently researched examples and as always, well presented.
Glad you liked it!
Thank you, very interesting video!👏
Joni Mitchell's "Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody" interpolates Unchained Melody and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, in the same way as in the Mariah Carey example- "We'd be Playing, 'You give your love so sweetly,' one more time". But the COOL THING IS Joni sang on the original Carole King recording of WYSLMT
Tremendous piece of research and editing and work! Congrats buddy!
"Rockollection" by Laurent Voulzy, a French number 1 in 1977, is about 4 and a half minutes of this.
The Beatles "All My Loving" begins with a melody from Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Kathy Waltz" (the last piano line before Paul Desmond's first solo)
Also in "In my life" there is Pachelbel cannon.
I think it’s a stretch to describe either of these as “interpolation”. The word implies intent - a conscious decision to quote another work within your own.
There is a resemblance here for sure. But in the case of “All my Loving”, it’s way too much of a generic melodic movement - just going down the major scale and then up again to resolve on the tonic - to conclude it’s anything more than a coincidence. Why would anybody deliberately “quote” something this non-distinctive and unremarkable?
As for “In My Life”, sure the chord sequence is a little reminiscent of Pachebel’s Canon in D, just like a thousand other pop songs are. But it’s not the same. Martin was clearly trying to evoke a generic “baroque” sound in the piano solo, and one of the guys he would be looking to for inspiration would be Pachelbel. But he doesn’t directly quote him, which is what an interpolation is.
@@prkp7248 No, don't confuse style with a specific opus.
I agree with @@fromchomleystreet . But maybe we could say that the Beatles did employ interpolation in eg the use of La Marseillaise at the beginning of All You Need Is Love and the same song's use of "In The Mood"," Greensleeves" and their own "She Loves You" at the end. Also George Harrison's use of "Sorrow" by the Merseys in All Too Much etc. etc. Like most stuff in popular music The Beatles will have done it somewhere (I am only half joking.)
@@martifingers Oh, the Beatles used interpolation, for sure. “All you need is love” is a clear example.
One of my fave: “I’m So Sexy” by Right Said Fred interpolating Hendrix’s “Third Stone from the Sun”…it’s in there. Subtle but there.
Really?
It really isn't.
I actually learned this definition of interpolation from the liner notes of Fall Out Boy’s "Infinity On High" album! They interpolate Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in their song Hum Hallelujah
Nile Rodgers has said in interview that he was sure Rapper's Delight DID sample the recording of Good Times, in particular compare string motif at 4.19 on Rapper's Delight 12" to 3.47 on Good Times.
Take Me Home Tonight, Eddie Money
“The song's chorus interpolates the Ronettes' 1963 hit "Be My Baby", with original vocalist Ronnie Spector providing uncredited vocals and reprising her role.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home_Tonight_(song))
I noticed in some of my compilation albums (like the Now That's What I Call Classic Rock and such) it's credited as "Take Me Home Tonight/Be My Baby", I wonder if that was a legal thing done after the fact because he didn't give Ronnie Spector credit originally. I mean, it should have been fairly obvious, he does what Mariah Carey does in David's example and says "Just like Ronnie says" before she sings "be my little baby"
Just like Ronnie says…
Thanks TH-cam, for making the link impossible to use. 😂
@@JaredtheRabbit It's because the link above has a couple of extra parentheses. Try this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home_Tonight_(song)
That works perfectly! Thank you, @@kkfoto
On the Dresden Dolls' first album, Amanda Palmer has a couple clever moments of interpolation. The reason I call them "clever" is that they rise organically out of the lyrics. In "Good Day," she sings "I'd like to do more than survive, I'd like to rub it in your face." At the moment she sings this, the music and melody match up with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Similarly, in a later track called "Jeep Song," she is lamenting about frequently seeing cars that remind her of her ex-lover's red Jeep. She sings "I see a red Jeep and I want to paint it black." At that moment, the music matches the verse of "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones.
The reason I like these two examples is that neither feels like an arbitrary reference for reference's sake. Both completely fit the story, mood, and harmony of the song. It feels like she was writing lyrics and realized she could incorporate the reference, rather than building her song around the reference the way some of these other examples seem to have originated. It feels closer to the Mariah Carey example than the Train example.
woah! I love Train and specifically love the song "Play that song"
The amount of research you put into this is astounding! I've been watching your videos for quite a while now especially the ones where you talk about the Beatles....
Islands in the Stream was interpolated to Ghetto Superstar. It's the song that taught me about the practice.
Also Amish Paradise being a parody of an interpolation is so good. How many layers deep can you go?
So well done. I enjoy the use of sheet music to make the comparison
also the ending of "build god then we'll talk" by panic at the disco interpolates "my favourite things" in very cooool way!
Unfortunately, their usage of “Rock Lobster” in “Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time” cancels that out
My favorite interpolation is Gloria (In Excelsis Deo) by Patti Smith, which heavily interpolates the chorus and instrumental backing to Gloria by Them.
How about the chorus to "I Really Don't Care" by Demi Lavato vs. "Shadows of the Night" by Pat Benetar? That's one of my favorite examples.
Great vid. Answered a bunch of questions I've asked before in my head.
The Madonna song "Cherish" quotes the opening line of the 60s song "Cherish" by the band The Association.
What a great video! Thank you David!!
A melody from The Lion Sleeps Tonight (which has its own convoluted history) was interpolated into REMs The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight.
“The Guitar” by They Might Be Giants also started as a jam of The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Excellent, David, thank you.
One of my favorite examples is Chinese Cafe / Unchained Melody by Joni Mitchell.
Joni Mitchell interpolated, too, Jingle Bells in River (i believe it was called)
Fantastic song!
I come from a STEM background, and my initial expectation of "interpolation" was a bit different, heheh. Anyway, great video as always.
Billy Joel used the melody and harmony from the second movement of Beethoven's Sonata 'Pathétique for the chorus of This Night from An Innocent Man album.
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine were successfully (I think) sued by The Rolling Stones for using the words 'Goodbye Ruby Tuesday', not even the melody or the harmony from the song, in their 1991 song 'After the Watershed'. I think the same song also interpolated the bass riff from Satisfaction.
Big difference, of course, is that Beethoven is public domain.
@@rdspamand Billy also gave Beethoven credit 😂
@howtodoitdude1662 The composers David covered in the video here also gave the original songwriters credit. I don't think that's the differentiation for interpolation.
[edits: typos]
He also used Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" at the beginning of "Goodnight Saigon."
@@Neli42 I have never noticed, and listening now, I can’t hear it. Is it very low in the mix?
I think we could say “whiter shade of pale” by procol harum is a good interpolation of “air” by Bach.
There’s an incredible Ava Max/Bon Jovi mashup on TH-cam.
If I did it, it would be a "copyright infringement". If someone with expensive lawyers do it, it's called "interpolation". That's the difference.
Thinking of the AJJ song "People II: The Reckoning" which, after three original verses and a bridge, Sean Bonnette begins singing a depressing twisted version of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson. I'm curious if that section would count as parody or only interpolation. Not only does it borrow the melody, but some of the lyrics.
I think it counts as interpolation since it changes some words and may even change a chord or two. Plus it only supplements the song at its end. So, good example 😊
That is a good one! Right before reading this comment I was thinking of a different AJJ song, the part in survival song where Sean sings Do Re Mi by Woody Guthrie, and then immediately afterward says "we totally ripped off a man named Woody Guthrie"
Great explanation, and insightful examples - top notch content, as always!
Interestingly, the strings from the „Dernier Domicile Connu“ film were also sampled by both Missy Eliot on „All ´N My Grill“ and Mix Master Mike on „Surprize Packidge“, both released in 1999. Maybe that‘s where Robbie‘s songwriting team got the idea.
Also Outkast's So Fresh So Clean before the Night is over by Joe Simon
I don't think it is a coincidence that I hate most of the examples that you use. I respect the practice of sampling, I also respect covering a song (as long as you give it a clear new feel). In most of the examples though, the use of a well known piece of music is not meant as an homage, but feels more like a cheap way to score some recognition.
He explained why it's literally not cheap. They still have to pay for the composition,and they still transform the work.
I wish people would stop thinking of music as a competition. Though you're allowed to dislike what you want.
I had an advert before the video and it was this guy on it! Algorithmic man.
In music, it's called "interpolation". In art, it's called "appropriation". In court, it's called plagiarism. In the street, it's called stealing.
It's a completely new term from the last few years. As popular music continues to run out of steam, theft is all many of them have left. I've been a professional musician and engineer, and I only heard the term recently.
Yeah that fake word keeps popping back up. Back in the day we already had a word for it: We called it theft.
Musicians have always quoted other songs. Classical composers did it. Jazz musicians do it. I hear rock guitarists do it all the time in solos. Ultimately certain musical phrases become part of our collective consciousness. "My favorite things" is absolutely an example of this phenomenon. So are most of the examples in this video. Ultimately the question is whether the original composer or songwriter should receive a writing credit for the new song.
This.
12 music notes, hundreds of millions of possibly billions of songs, and you expect each one of those melodies in those songs to all be exactly different? Do you think that classical musicians such as beethoven, mozart, didn’t interpolate based on works they have heard themselves?
Another fantastic video! Thanks so much David 😁
All By Myself by Eric Carmen also credits Sergei Rachmaninoff and with very good reason. I actually never know that Rachmaninoff was credited but just looked it up.
Eric Carmen had to credit Rachmaninoff because his estate threatened to sue in European Court where copyrights are longer than in the U.S.
Great video! I had no idea about these melodies being interpelated.
I would call it just "quoting". Interpolating in mathematics is composing a function (basically, a polynomial) based on several values (in several points) of some original function. Solution of similar musical task would be rather interesting.
These videos have proved instrumental in the noteworthy improvements in my compositions.
I think that "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas interpolates Dick Dale's "Misirlou", which itself interpolates an older folk song.
Dick Dale's Misirlou is either a heavily adapted version of Egyptian Girl, or a separate song that is heavily inspired by it. From a legal standpoint it's different enough to qualify as its own thing, but since Misirlou literally means "Egyptian Girl" many think of it as the former. The point is moot, though, as it is long since out of copyright (in fact, it was written long before anybody had any notion of copyright).
God I feel like such a hipster saying that I prefer the 1920s recording of that folk song
Wouldn't Ave Maria be an interpolation of Prélude in C by Bach?
Like the Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod?
Not if you mean Schubert's ;)
@@jcarty123 i mean there are a million other ave marias that don't use bach
My question is: can the original artist (or his publisher) just say no, you can't use my song?
Absolutely
@@Baa975 Good. I'm surprised some of these artists allow their work to be used this way.
Amazing video. Thank you so much to the TH-cam algorithm for blessing me today lol
As someone with a maths degree, i would call most of these example extrapolation rather than interpolation.
I don't have a math degree but none of these examples match the mathematical ideas of extrapolation nor interpolation.
extrapolation is extending something beyond it's range, and interpolation is completing something within it's range when you dont have all of the data.
in music terms, extrapolation would be adding to a song a part that should go before the intro or after the outro, and interpolation would be adding something to the middle of a song.
"Tainted Love" by Gloria Jones was covered in the 80's by Soft Cell and its accompaniments were interpolated by Fine Young Cannibals in "Good Things."
The chorus from "If You could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot was used in Whitney Houston's "The greatest Love of All."
interpolition is just sampling trying to clean up it's act
Interpolation
More like plagiarising
Most people comment how “Flowers” is similar in lyric to “If I Were Your Man”, but I noticed that melodically, I hear only what I can call a reverse interpolation. The hook in Flowers is melodically inverted from the Bruno Mars song. Once you hear it, you can’t unhear it.
Does anyone write original material anymore?
Nobody has written anything original since the 18th century.
Everybody is copying either Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart.
Fascinating stuff. I grew up listening to music from Papua New Guinea. While none of the stuff I listened to regularly did it, it was quite common for some artists to interpolate melodies from famous Western songs. Examples I remember hearing included “Can’t help falling in love with you” by Elvis, “Heart of Glass” by Blondie, “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, and “Fernando” by ABBA. Needless to say, none of those artists ever got royalties (or even knew the interpolations existed). I’d be curious if this also is common in other third world country music industries.
This was such an interesting video! My mind has been blown 🤯 subscribed!!
3:25 the song "Aserejé" by the Spanish female group "Las Ketchup" is about a guy who, at a club/disco, goes to the DJ to request his favorite song. The lyrics he sings are "Y aserejé-ja-dejé. De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi," which is actually an interpretation of the song "Rapper's Delight" in the part that goes, "I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie. To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock It to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie. To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat". they used this interpolation tecnique
A really great, and perhaps unusual, example of interpolation is in Queen's quite brilliant song 'It's a Hard Life' - the intro is based on an aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci.
Another simply masterful one is Joni Mitchell's Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody. It has such a good reason too, it's reminiscing about listening to Unchained Melody in a cafe as a young person. Just perfectly done
Great video! Thank you so much :)
Joe Jackson's Ever After starts with Love Here To Stay. Breaking Us in Two starts with Day by Day.
Is She Really Going Out With Him is from Leader of the Pack.
He also does answer songs.
My world will never be the same, thank you for this interesting video
Nice video, always gave me new knowledge in music
one I noticed is Runner by Alex G and Runaway Train, idk how close it is but it's so so similar
boygenius's "Cool About It" interpolates S&G's "The Boxer," and both songs are amazing
My preference for any form of referencing another work is when it serves a creative artistic purpose, which sampling rarely does. Three examples of this in reference to interpolations are:
Metallica "quotes" America from West Side Story in Don't Tread On Me, inviting the listener to think more deeply about the themes of the song.
Michael Jackson interpolates and overlays two sounds -- a drum fill and a strings hit -- from Yes's Owner Of A Lonely Heart in his song DS so that when it makes you think of that song title, it leads you to add your own commentary to the personality of the main character of DS.
On his new album I/O, Peter Gabriel begins his life-doesn't-last-forever song Playing For Time with Chopin's Funeral March.
I like to see artists be clever and trust the intelligence of their listeners when they use these kinds of tools.
Great episode! Danke
I don’t know if this counts as “interpolation”, but another famous rock track, the Doors “Light my fire”, also based on the chord progression of “My Favorite Things”, mostly inspired by John Coltrane’s instrumental recording.
another example i thought of is the 2017 hit Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man, which interpolated the 1961 hit Please Mr. Postman by The Marvelettes ^
Good man David thank you for this informative piece on interpolation ❤😊 Paint the town red is a interpolation on the the song Walk on by dionne warwick 😊
So the difference interpolation and plagiarism is whether the original writers and composers got credit in the new version?
More or less. Plagiarism is where the later artist passes the work off as his own, rather than acknowledging the earlier work.
The song The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis interpolates On Broadway by the Drifters near the end
That’s right, and on the same album, Genesis interpolated “It’s Only Rock and Roll” by The Rolling Stones (on the closing song, “It”).
The Biggie song Machine Gun Funk at 2:34 Biggie interpolates the line "What's love got to do with it" from the the Tina Turner song What's love Got To Do With It.
I always think of that too.
These interpolations drive me completely wild. I always hear them when listening to music and repeating the part over and over trying to figure out where the interpolation cones from. The strangest I've found must be the Beat from the song "Alles neu" by german singer Peter Fox in the song "The Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy
Music videos always make me think of how Pink Floyd might be able to fit into their purview. For them, I know Syd Barrett had the more likely times of interpolation. "Interstellar Overdrive", for instance, has its main riff, which I know people have compared to a bit of the theme song to the show Steptoe and Son. But looking past his era, "One of These Days" has been pointed out to have a bit of the Doctor Who theme song in it. But there's also instances of what are really more of rewrites, but I wanted to mention them: "Breathe" from Dark Side of the Moon shares a title and opening line with the earlier Roger Waters solo song "Breathe" from Music from the Body (a soundtrack collaboration with Ron Geesin, though the two primarily didn't appear on the others' songs), and there's also an interesting instance of Roger giving Marianne Faithfull a song he'd written called "Incarceration of a Flower Child", which opens with a line that can be found in "Your Possible Pasts" from the Pink Floyd album The Final Cut (which was basically a Roger Waters solo album anyways). I mean, another Floyd song which has involvement with interpolation is "Fearless (Interpolating You'll Never Walk Alone)" from Meddle, but that seems more of a sample, as the "interpolated" bit was recorded from the crowd at a soccer game, and they likely had no idea they were even being recorded, let alone for a Pink Floyd album.
Thinking of Roger, though, he did also interpolate during his solo career. Particularly I can think of the song "Folded Flags" (from the When the Wind Blows soundtrack), which interpolated the song "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix.
You could do a whole video on replayed tracks (and the group that have become to go to ones for it in the UK) - but specifically for when the original samplers wanted more control over a sample.
Chemical Brothers - We Got To Try has this exact effect because they wanted to use more of the vocal in the track but couldn't mix it well enough, so the replay meant they could isolate parts they needed.
A lot of music from Disney and Nickelodeon shows interpolates with earlier hit songs. Credits are usually not "formally" given. For example, Nick Jonas - Introducing Me (Camp Rock) interpolates with Jason Mraz - I'm Yours. Miranda Cosgrove - Leave It All To Me (Theme from iCarly) interpolates with Pete Townshend - Face The Face (drums intro). For most of the examples, the interpolation seems to be deliberately broken, but still well recognized.
Great video! Very entertaining
Are there combinations of notes, note values, and rhythms that have not yet been discovered that can make a melody? What percentage of mathematically possible melodies have already been touched throughout the history of music?
'Lazyitis' by the Happy Mondays interpolates melodic and lyric elements from 'Ticket To Ride' and 'Two Of Us' (the "on our way home" bit).
And quotes David Essex, "we're - gon-na make you - a star-ar-ar-ah".
Comparing Bad Company’s opening lines that are also repeated throughout the song Bad Company to Joni Mitchell’s opening and repeated lines in her original piano version of Woodstock I have always felt as though they were copied and then repurposed.
Great Video.
All these examples are not accidental occurrences and so what happens if there's an accidental use of previous material?
Can the record be pulled without legal issues or other repercussions?
Joybringer by Manfred Man is a rock interpolation of Holst's Jupiter with lyrics added, and it's brilliant!
Doin Time by Sublime has lyrics that are an interpolation of the song "Summertime" by George Gershwin,and ALSO samples a version of the song too.
Outstanding example!