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Think you know your favorite pop hits? Think again. From sneaky horn blasts to clever interpolations, this countdown spotlights the chart-toppers that hid familiar riffs, melodies and grooves in plain sight. Some borrow from disco, others from rock, soul, dancehall and beyond, making these songs way more layered than they first sound.
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00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most notable songs that
00:12incorporated hooks, riffs, melodies, and interpolations that most listeners never caught.
00:26Number 20, Kings and Queens, Ava Max.
00:37There's a reason Ava Max's Kings and Queens may sound strangely familiar to fans of Bon Jovi.
00:44Its soaring chorus interpolates Bonnie Tyler's 1986 song, If You Were a Woman and I Was a Man.
00:59That song was written by Desmond Child, who later used the same melodic idea for Bon Jovi's You Give Love
01:06a Bad Name.
01:14When Max's team wanted to license the Bon Jovi version, Child reportedly pointed them toward Tyler's original instead.
01:22Released in 2020, Kings and Queens became a global pop hit built around a message of female empowerment.
01:29So while the enormous chorus of Kings and Queens does have a rock pedigree,
01:34its musical family tree is a little more complicated than expected.
01:38So all of the queens who are fighting alone, baby, you're not dancing on your own.
01:45Number 19, Uma Thurman, Fall Out Boy.
01:49I can move mountains, I can walk a miracle, walk a miracle.
01:54This 2015 hit incorporates music from Jack Marshall's theme for The Munsters,
01:59the 1960s sitcom about America's favorite monster family.
02:11The sample helped give the track its funky retro edge,
02:15although the title points in an entirely different direction.
02:19Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz explained that early listeners kept making Quentin Tarantino connections
02:25when they heard the song, inspiring the band to build its concept around actress Uma Thurman
02:31and her roles in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.
02:40The eventual tune reached the top 40 and was certified double platinum.
02:45If only Fall Out Boy had moved mountains and worked miracles to get Thurman herself to appear in the music
02:51video.
02:51She wants to dance like, ooh, with Thurman, bury me till I confess.
02:57Number 18, Don't Wanna Go Home.
03:00Jason Derulo.
03:15A nightclub favorite and a Calypso classic somehow ended up sharing the same dance floor in this 2011 electropop banger.
03:23Don't Wanna Go Home samples Robin S.'s house anthem, Show Me Love, using its hypnotic bassline throughout the track.
03:37Derulo had heard the song repeatedly in clubs and specifically wanted to play with that bassline.
03:43The hook also borrows lyrics from Harry Belafonte's Day-O, the Banana Boat song,
03:49transforming the Day-O chant from that Calypso track into its chorus.
04:00There's even a lyrical nod to Lil Jon's Get Low.
04:03With house music, Calypso, and Southern hip-hop references all squeezed into one glossy club record,
04:09this song practically qualifies as a musical group project.
04:21Number 17, Don'tcha, the Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes.
04:26Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?
04:29Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?
04:33That sultry chorus has a surprisingly brash ancestor.
04:38Don'tcha, the Pussycat Dolls 2005 breakthrough single,
04:41incorporates an interpolation of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Swass,
04:45a 1988 track from his debut album of the same name.
04:56Producer CeeLo Green built the song around the interpolated hook,
05:00giving it a sleek R&B makeover before Busta Rhymes added his rap verse.
05:05The song became a global smash,
05:12reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100
05:15and topping charts in more than a dozen countries.
05:18The connection is easy to miss because the polished production of the Dolls single
05:22completely changes the context.
05:24Having the DNA of such a deep cut end up inside of one of the decade's
05:28most recognizable pop singles,
05:29is genuinely impressive recycling.
05:40Number 16, Break My Heart, Dua Lipa.
05:51The third single from Dua Lipa's pandemic soundtrack album contains a piece of 1980s rock history
05:58hiding inside its disco pop gloss.
06:01While working on the 2020 track,
06:03Lipa and her collaborators noticed its guitar riff resembled In Excess'
06:08Need You Tonight,
06:09the Australian band's 1987 hit,
06:19rather than risk a legal headache,
06:22Andrew Ferris and the late Michael Hutchence were credited as songwriters,
06:26with the resemblance officially treated as an interpolation.
06:29The connection became part of Future Nostalgia's broader retro aesthetic,
06:33which Lipa said brought nostalgia further to the forefront.
06:45Ferris later praised her for asking permission,
06:48while admitting it was, quote,
06:49kind of bizarre hearing his riff reimagined that way.
07:00Consider yourself a musical detective?
07:03There are plenty more pop culture mysteries to solve.
07:06Scan the QR code on your screen to join the Ms. Mojo 24-7 live stream
07:10for non-stop countdowns and pop trivia.
07:13What I really need is somebody
07:16Who will always be there
07:18Number 15, Kiss Me More
07:21Doja Cat featuring SZA
07:23The next time this flirty pop hit comes on,
07:34you might want to listen closely to the chorus.
07:36Kiss Me More borrows its melody
07:38from Olivia Newton-John's 1981 smash Physical,
07:42although the slick production makes the reference much less obvious.
07:54Instead of using Newton-John's original recording,
07:58Doja Cat and SZA's collaborators recreated the melodic idea,
08:02thereby making it an interpolation.
08:04The result became one of 2021's biggest pop songs,
08:07which blended disco, funk, and R&B influences
08:10with SZA's dreamy vocals and Doja Cat's playful delivery.
08:22Newton-John's workout anthem was famously about desire disguised as exercise.
08:2740 years later,
08:28that melody found itself attached to a much more direct proposition.
08:40Number 14, Fergalicious
08:43Fergie featuring Will.i.am
08:52Beneath all the sugary synths of Fergie's delicious 2006 hit
08:56lies a surprisingly deep roster of hip-hop samples.
09:00The song interpolates J.J. Fad's Super Sonic,
09:03the 1988 hip-hop classic co-produced by Dr. Dre.
09:13It also incorporates elements from Afro-Rican's Give It All You Got.
09:18Uno, two, tres, four.
09:26This is an addition to references to Kraftwerk's
09:29It's More Fun to Compute.
09:30It's More Fun to Compute.
09:34It's More Fun to Compute.
09:37Will.i.am produced the track and described it as Fergie flaunting her confidence
09:41while paying homage to the female rap tradition.
09:45Fergalicious became a worldwide hit and one of Fergie's signature songs.
09:49It's playful spelling, candy-coated production, and boastful lyrics
09:53make the track sound like pure 2000s pop excess.
10:04Underneath it all, though, there's enough musical history to fill a record store.
10:18One of Jennifer Lopez's most well-known songs,
10:22On the Floor takes listeners on a trip from Los Angeles clubs
10:25to Bolivia and Brazil without requiring a passport.
10:29The 2011 dance pop hit interpolates Los Carcas, Llorando Se Fue,
10:34a Bolivian song written by Gonzalo, and Ulises Hermosa.
10:45The melody had already become internationally famous
10:49through Caoma's 1989 hit Lambada,
10:52which helped turn it into a global dance phenomenon.
11:01Lopez and Pitbull then folded that melody
11:03into a sleek Latin pop and house production,
11:06giving it another enormous life on the dance floor.
11:09The song became one of Lopez's biggest hits,
11:12reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
11:14It remains the best-selling single of 2011.
11:24Number 12.
11:26Fantasy.
11:27Mariah Carey.
11:36The secret ingredient behind one of Mariah Carey's biggest hits
11:39is an irresistibly funky 1981 groove.
11:43Fantasy samples TomTom Club's Genius of Love,
11:46weaving its bass line and rhythmic elements
11:48beneath Carey's soaring vocals.
11:50With my boyfriend, my lucky boyfriend,
11:55there's no beginning and there is no end.
11:58The 1995 single became a landmark pop and R&B crossover,
12:03while its remix took the experiment even further
12:05by bringing in O.D.B.
12:07What you gonna do when you get out of jail?
12:09I'm going to do a remix.
12:11What you gonna do when you get out of jail?
12:14I'm going to have some fun.
12:16That collaboration helped to demonstrate
12:18Carey's growing embrace of hip-hop
12:20and became a major moment in her career.
12:22The same TomTom Club groove later resurfaced decades afterward
12:26in Lotto's Big Energy.
12:35With Carey herself appearing on its remix,
12:38that is one seriously persistent groove.
12:41Number 11, Toxic, Britney Spears.
12:51Forget the futuristic synths for a moment
12:54and listen to the strings.
12:56One of Britney Spears' most celebrated hits
12:58contains a sample from
13:01A Hindi song from the 1981 Bollywood film
13:04The recording's distinctive string passage
13:16was incorporated into the production of Toxic,
13:19helping give the track its tense, cinematic quality.
13:22Released in 2003 as the second single from the album
13:25In The Zone,
13:26the song became an international smash
13:28and earned Spears her first Grammy
13:30for Best Dance Recording.
13:39The result sounds like electronic espionage
13:42wrapped in pop perfection.
13:44Who would have thought that its secret ingredient
13:46would come from Indian cinema
13:47going back over two decades?
14:04While either video for this Katy Perry track
14:07will have you sing WTF,
14:09the song says it itself
14:10thanks to a sample of Fatboy Slim's Star 69.
14:16As it happens,
14:17Star 69 is actually based off a sample itself,
14:20taking its own vocal hook
14:22from Roland Clark's dance track
14:23I Get Deep.
14:25I Get Deep, I Get Deep, I Get Deep, I Get Deep, I Get
14:28The catchy groove and bass line
14:29behind the Katy Perry track
14:31is a clear homage to house music
14:33and its respective subgenres.
14:35With Nicki Minaj featured,
14:36we also get some lines referencing
14:38Snow White and Biggie's Juicy
14:39in her relentless rap
14:40towards the end of the song.
14:42Mirror, mirror, who's the fairest
14:43bitch in all the land?
14:44Damn, man, this bitch is a fan
14:46Degenera's queen that kept the fan
14:48Ask her bop, I'ma be riding by
14:49I'ma tell my bitch Big Z and that's the guy
14:51Number 9, D-A-N-C-E, Justice
14:54To the D-A-N-C-E
14:57One, two, three, four, five
14:58Using samples sparingly and subtly,
15:01the French DJ duo behind Justice
15:03managed to turn disco into electronica.
15:12The band actually pulled from an obscure sound clip
15:15recorded by Simon Harris,
15:16producing the weird radio stat
15:18occurred in the song's opening.
15:23The track's string lines were also lifted
15:25from Boney M's Sonny,
15:27cleverly edited into separate chunks.
15:29The song even reinterprets Madonna's final verse
15:31from Me Against the Music,
15:33bringing a whole new life to it
15:34with the children's choir.
15:43The French duo's fresh spin on the melody
15:46was addictive, and also pulled some memorable lines
15:48from songs by Michael Jackson.
15:58Number 8, Paper Planes, MIA
16:06During her trouble with the American visa system,
16:09MIA decided to pen an anthem
16:11to struggling immigrants.
16:12Much of the track speaks to the daily grind
16:14of working foreigners,
16:15while also showing how they're still considered evil
16:18by the United States.
16:19Coupled with Diplo's production,
16:21MIA found a catchy sample
16:22in the opening of the clashes
16:23Straight to Hell.
16:34The clash song itself spoke to how immigrants
16:36were being vilified in the United Kingdom,
16:38making its sampling all the more appropriate.
16:41Paper Planes also included gun sounds
16:43throughout the chorus
16:43to reflect Westerners' expectations of immigrants,
16:46despite the fact that many are in fact refugees of war.
16:54Number 7, The Way, Ariana Grande featuring Mac Miller.
16:59Ariana Grande and Mac Miller's rap-pop collaboration
17:01was already full of surprises
17:03before you consider where it was inspired from.
17:05If you want what I got it, I got it every day
17:08You can get whatever you need for me
17:11Employing the catchy piano hook
17:12from Brenda Russell's A Little Bit of Love,
17:15Ariana and Mac threw their own vocals on the track.
17:17I'm all the way
17:20I'm all the way
17:22Ariana's lines perfectly update
17:24the loving spirit of the original,
17:26feeding into the soulful delivery of Brenda Russell.
17:28A little bit of love
17:31can go a long, long way
17:33Mack Miller's sultry rapping recalls Big Pun's
17:36Still Not a Player,
17:37which also samples the Russell piano line.
17:40While Mack Miller's verse is certainly the dirtiest in the song,
17:43it makes for a much subtler rap than Big Pun's.
17:46Got some feelings for you,
17:47I'm not gonna get bored of my baby,
17:49you an adventure,
17:50so let me come and explore ya.
17:51Sultry one, yeah.
17:53Number 6, Suit and Tie
17:55Justin Timberlake featuring Jay-Z.
17:57I be on my suit and tie shit, tie, shit, tie.
18:02As Justin Timberlake was adding some class to his third record,
18:05plenty of brass and pianos were in order.
18:07Crafting tons of dreamy melodies and a slick beat,
18:10Timbaland managed to make Justin's signature dance aesthetic feel organic.
18:14She's so high
18:17Tonight
18:18And as long as I got my suit and tie
18:21I'ma leave it out on the floor tonight
18:24Blending tones of 70s funk and soul into the song's groove,
18:27all that was missing was the horns.
18:32Speeding up the trumpet hooks from Sly, Slick and Wicked's Show Neff,
18:36Timberlake had a transition that let him go anywhere with the song.
18:40Jay-Z also makes his own callback before the final chorus,
18:43making a cheeky reference to his 2002 track, Show You How.
18:46I'll show you how to do this, huh?
18:48As long as I got my suit and tie
18:50I'ma leave it out on the floor tonight
18:535. Crazy
18:54Gnarls Barkley
18:55Next to a lot of the soul and hip-hop that CeeLo and Danger Mouse put out of Gnarls Barkley,
19:00Crazy always had a mysterious sound.
19:02So that make me crazy
19:06Name-dropping Ennio Morricone,
19:08Danger Mouse said that they were heavily influenced by spaghetti westerns while writing their biggest hit.
19:19Lifting the guitars and harmonies from Italian composers Gianfranco and Gianfiero Reverbi's Last Man Standing,
19:26Gnarls Barkley had a hook that was both epic and tense.
19:29You can even hear the iconic melody throughout the film, Django, Prepare a Coffin.
19:33I remember every night
19:38Regardless of how much is sampled, you can't argue with the results.
19:524. Born to Die
19:54Lana Del Rey
19:59Lana Del Rey's dreamy and psychedelic vocals have become her style,
20:03making samples that much harder to spot in her work.
20:06Close inspection of Born to Die, however, reveals the song's warped background yells are actually from Mountain's Long Red.
20:12It's like I told you, honey, don't make me sad, don't make me cry.
20:20While Mountain is primarily known for guitar riffs in hits like Mississippi Queen,
20:25the unique vocal track is taken from a live recording.
20:27Louder!
20:29Yeah!
20:29Shouting louder through every chorus, the genius edit amps up the energy of Lana's song without feeling out of place.
20:36While Del Rey was more interested in Mountain's vocals, everyone from Jay-Z to Kanye have sampled its beat as
20:41well.
20:42If you havin' girl problems, I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one.
20:47Hit me!
20:47Josh!
20:503. Hotline Bling
20:51Drake
20:52You used to call me on my cell phone
20:55While Drake's dance moves made this song popular enough for parodies,
20:59the lounge beat and organ hook made it instantly iconic.
21:02I know in that hotline bling
21:05That can only mean one thing
21:07The backing track had a distinct lo-fi hum to its tones,
21:10since it was actually pulling from the obscure Timmy Thomas single, Why Can't We Live Together.
21:15Tell me why, tell me why
21:17The bossa nova-infused sample was completely out of place for pop music at the time,
21:22and it ended up being a major part of why Hotline Bling went on to be such a massive hit.
21:26Timmy Thomas has even offered his own praise for the sample,
21:30saying Drake had made something truly new with the song.
21:412. Work
21:43Rihanna featuring Drake
21:49Booming with bass and a subtle beat,
21:50there's an intoxicating quality to the grooves of Rihanna's dance club hit.
21:54All that I wanted from you was to give me something that I never had
21:59While Rihanna's vocals establish a new melody,
22:02the bass line and lead riff are actually from the 20-year-old dance hall song called Sail Away Rhythm.
22:13The sample is mixed into something a little more quiet and ambient,
22:16fitting the track's themes of inebriation perfectly.
22:19Despite the simplicity of the loop,
22:21the dynamic back and forth between Rihanna and Drake
22:23keeps the sound fresh throughout the song's entirety.
22:25You would know what I mean to say
22:31Sail Away Rhythm itself contains an interpolation from Alexander O'Neill
22:35that is seemingly emulated on a keyboard in Rihanna's song.
22:53Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Adia,
22:57Songs from Iran,
22:59reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock, metal, and pop songs.
23:03Check out the full track and album below.
23:191. Crazy in Love
23:21Beyonce featuring Jay-Z
23:23The horns in this Beyonce track immediately stood out,
23:26begging listeners to crank up their stereos whenever it came on the radio.
23:33In your face and full of pop,
23:36few realized that the chorus was actually a sample of Are You My Woman? Tell Me So.
23:46Writer Rich Harrison loved the Shy Lights hook,
23:49but Beyonce initially found the sound too retro.
23:52The trumpet sounded distinct on the radio in 2003,
23:55helping Beyonce attract attention as a solo artist early on.
23:58While Beyonce initially felt that the brass sample was too much,
24:02she has since admitted they make the song what it is.
24:10What other sneaky samples have you fished out?
24:13Let us know in the comments.