We all love a good music sample, but some are easier to place than others. Here are some of the best unconventional samples that caught us and members of the BuzzFeed Community off guard with their catchiness!
1. The talking at the start of Taylor Swift's "London Boy" is a clip of Idris Elba – a true London boy – being interviewed on The Late Late Show.
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Skip to: 2.39. Suggested by anjaxmiller.
2. One icon sampling another happens all the time, but the fact that the “yeah, yeahs” are from Rihanna’s “Cheers (Drink to That)” are from “I’m With You” – one of Avril Lavigne’s most emo songs is what makes this sample unexpected.
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Skip to 2:22.
3. The French part of Beyoncé's "Partition" is almost exactly the same as the French dub of a scene from '90s comedy The Big Lebowski.
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Skip to 0.43.
4. The instantly recognisable hook of Britney's Toxic features a replayed sample from a song from the Bollywood film Ek Duuje Ke Liye.
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Skip to: 0.12. Submitted by sharvarist21.
5. The guitar riff in Fall Out Boy's "Uma Thurman" is the theme from the '60s sitcom The Munsters.
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Suggested by madelynf487f41e0c
6. If “Boys” by Charli XCX always sounded super nostalgic to you, it’s probably because it has the coin sound effect from Super Mario Bros. throughout the whole song.
7. The iconic dialogue from "Ni**as in Paris" is from Will Ferrell and Jon Heder's hilarious "Lady Humps" scene from Blades of Glory.
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Skip to: 0.12 & 0.29. Suggested by nat19th.
8. Billie Eilish must definitely be a fan of The Office, because the dialogue in "My Strange Addiction" is taken straight from the episode "Threat Level Midnight."
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Suggested by thatswiftie23.
9. Lil Wayne’s ‘10s classic “6 Foot 7 Foot” has vocals from Harry Belafonte’s Calypso classic “Day-O (Banana Boat Song),” which is a traditional Jamaican folk song.
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Skip tp 1.00..
10. This is probably not surprising, but the spoken parts of Mika's "Grace Kelly" are very similar to scenes from her 1954 film The Country Girl.
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Suggested by sam_cleal.
11. The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" begins with a horned version of the French National Anthem.
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Skip to: 0.32. Suggested by emilyw47d8096f9.
12. Sam Smith used the therapy session from Donnie Darko in "To Die For" and its mood matches the song perfectly.
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Skip to: 1.45. Suggested by takerbobpooh.
13. You may not be familiar with Charles Aznavour, a French singer from the ‘60s, but Dr. Dre used his song “Parce Que Tu Crois” on “What’s the Difference.”
14. The end of Stormzy's "Superheroes" has him singing the Tracy Beaker theme song, which proves he's a true '00s kid.
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Suggested by hobbitgirl96.
15. Ariana and Nicki's Pharell-produced "The Light Is Coming" very randomly samples a Pennsylvania senator being heckled at a town hall meeting.
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Skip to 1.03.
16. Pharrell must have really enjoyed that particular clip, because he used another section of it for N*E*R*D and Rihanna's "Lemon."
17. Fatboy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now" got its name and the ~entirety of its lyrics~ from a single line from Angela Basset in Strange Days.
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18. And finally, Ariana Grande must be a Tarantino fan, because the spoken part of "God Is A Woman" is the same as a Samuel L. Jackson monologue from Pulp Fiction, which is a paraphrasing of the Bible verse Ezekiel 25:17.
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Skip to: 1.55.
What's your favourite unexpected sample? Let us know in the comments!
Additional thumbnail credits: NBC / Harry Durrant / Syndication