3 One-Hit Wonders That Sampled Other Songs (And Got Away With It)

These three one-hit wonders sampled pretty famous songs. And the artists who made them (more or less) got away with it. However, one of these samples is almost 300 years old, so we’re not exactly surprised that nobody was around to sue them over it.

1. “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice

This is probably the most famous example out there of one-hit wonders that sampled other songs. Vanilla Ice technically got away with using “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen in this 1990 hip-hop track for a while. However, the use of the sample eventually caught up with him. Ice didn’t offer credit or royalties to the two mega-famous music icons for the use of their song’s bassline in “Ice Ice Baby”. As a result, Ice was threatened with a copyright infringement suit. The case was settled out of court and Ice had to pay the artists an undisclosed amount of money, and also songwriting credits. But, “Ice Ice Baby” is still out there, so he technically got away with it.

Fun fact: Vanilla Ice attempted to stay on his career trajectory with the 1991 song “Rollin’ In My 5.0”, which also featured samples from the song “Fly Like An Eagle” by Steve Miller Band. Sadly for Ice, the song didn’t chart very well.

2. “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” by Sweetbox

This is one of those deeper-cut one-hit wonders that sampled songs from the 1990s that you may not even remember. This hit by German hip-hop group Sweetbox samples quite an old tune: “Air On The G String” from Suite No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach. 

The song was about 275 years old by the time Sweetbox got their hands on it, so it’s not exactly surprising that they “got away” with using the song. 

3. “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.

“Paper Planes” by M.I.A. was absolutely enormous when it was first released in 2007. Some might not even know that M.I.A. is technically a one-hit wonder, too. While M.I.A. has enjoyed a few hits across the pond in the UK and Europe, she technically only had one Billboard Hot 100 hit in the US with “Paper Planes”. 

This earworm of an alternative hip-hop song features a sample of English punk band The Clash’s 1982 song “Straight To Hell”, and the band is credited as co-writers on the track.

Photo by Walter Iooss Jr./Getty Images

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