Songs That Rip Off Stevie Wonder
Specifically, songs that rip off Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise".
The obvious one, of course, is Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," which actually used the melody and backing orchestration (different arrangement) of "Pastime Paradise". I daresay that most people under 30 know "Gangsta's Paradise" better than the original Stevie Wonder song. I have to admit that, until three or four years ago, I didn't know that "Gangsta's Paradise" was based musically on "Pastime Paradise". Thanks goes to my audiophile husband for that enlightenment.
"Gangsta's Paradise", of course, leads us to another song that uses "Pastime Paradise" -- Weird Al's paraody song "Amish Paradise".
And then there's an obscure song by '80s Christian alternative band Adam Again -- "Who Can Hold Us". While this song doesn't copy "Pastime Paradise" exactly, that is definitely the vibe the band was going for.
The other day I was listening to a Dido song, "Do you Have A Little Time," and discovered it had the "Pastime Paradise" vibe going on, too, with its string part.
Oh, and here's more I didn't know about, from Wikipedia: The "Pastime Paradise" sample was also used in a single released in 1991 by French rap group IAM entitled, "Tam-tam de l'Afrique" ("drums of Africa"). Another parody by Paul Shanklin using Gangsta's Paradise is "Algore Paradise," in which Rush Limbaugh mocks the Democratic Party. The Ian Brown song "F.E.A.R." borrows the main riffs from "Gangsta's Paradise". "Pastime Paradise" was sampled again as the basis of "Curtain Falls" by the boy-band Blue on 2004.
Anybody know of other songs that channel (or blatantly rip off) "Pastime Paradise"? Lemme know.
(P.S. -- Yes, grammar police, I know that punctuation really belongs on the inside of the quotation marks, but I think that's silly, so I have adopted the British rule of putting it on the outside.)
The obvious one, of course, is Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," which actually used the melody and backing orchestration (different arrangement) of "Pastime Paradise". I daresay that most people under 30 know "Gangsta's Paradise" better than the original Stevie Wonder song. I have to admit that, until three or four years ago, I didn't know that "Gangsta's Paradise" was based musically on "Pastime Paradise". Thanks goes to my audiophile husband for that enlightenment.
"Gangsta's Paradise", of course, leads us to another song that uses "Pastime Paradise" -- Weird Al's paraody song "Amish Paradise".
And then there's an obscure song by '80s Christian alternative band Adam Again -- "Who Can Hold Us". While this song doesn't copy "Pastime Paradise" exactly, that is definitely the vibe the band was going for.
The other day I was listening to a Dido song, "Do you Have A Little Time," and discovered it had the "Pastime Paradise" vibe going on, too, with its string part.
Oh, and here's more I didn't know about, from Wikipedia: The "Pastime Paradise" sample was also used in a single released in 1991 by French rap group IAM entitled, "Tam-tam de l'Afrique" ("drums of Africa"). Another parody by Paul Shanklin using Gangsta's Paradise is "Algore Paradise," in which Rush Limbaugh mocks the Democratic Party. The Ian Brown song "F.E.A.R." borrows the main riffs from "Gangsta's Paradise". "Pastime Paradise" was sampled again as the basis of "Curtain Falls" by the boy-band Blue on 2004.
Anybody know of other songs that channel (or blatantly rip off) "Pastime Paradise"? Lemme know.
(P.S. -- Yes, grammar police, I know that punctuation really belongs on the inside of the quotation marks, but I think that's silly, so I have adopted the British rule of putting it on the outside.)
posted by Anonymous at
11:17 AM
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