The other day I was thinking I would have a listen to Tone Loc‘s “Wild Thing”. I figured I would check out the Wikipedia page for kicks. Wait, what? That was an uncredited sample from a Van Halen song? Check it out!

The song uses an uncredited sample of Van Halen’s “Jamie’s Cryin'”. Van Halen’s management at the time asked for a flat fee (credited in some reports to be US$5,000) as payment to have the song sampled by Tone L?c. Apparently, this decision was taken without consulting the band’s original members (credited as co-authors of the song), who in turn did not expect “Wild Thing” to become the major hit it became. A subsequent civil lawsuit was settled out of court, with the band receiving US$180,000 as settlement payment. Alex Van Halen has gone on record saying that he had heard the song over the radio halfway and not realizing it had been sampled until he recognized his (by now famous) tom-tom break at least a few times. Concerning the settlement, he said: “Well, at least we got something. Tone L?c and his people made millions out of it…” – wikipedia