The Winstons
Amen, Brother

walter said on Friday, 20 August 2010:
Wow, I didn't realize the two acts were that close together, thanks for this info.

c_c said on Friday, 20 August 2010:
@walter Yea, you're right. i should have checked the cover before I assumed. The Winston's signed to Mayfield's label Curtom. They played back-up for the Impressions before they put their own record out, so they definitely were playing from Curtis' playbook. Curtis wrote We're a Winner, and based it off of his interpretation of Amen (not his song, but a good interpretation of the gospel original). Although you are right- they aren't the same drummer on the recordings, Coleman def played this song with Curtis before the Winston's released their updated version of the old Gospel "Amen" and included that break. This sort of thing is how Motown made its money for a long time. Really Billy Griffin should get the credit for being sampled, eh.
It really wasn't any secret, though, hence the quotation of We're a Winner at beginning and end. I guess it doesn't matter where it came from since the Winston's were the ones sampled so heavily by the rest. That sort of stuff is still cool to dig through, though.

walter said on Friday, 20 August 2010:
@ c_c I really don't think it's the same drummer. The Winstons (with OG Coleman) were from Washington, The Impressions from Chicago. Though I know both tracks rather well, I never noticed the similarity of the intro, thanks. @SmuttySy I'm surprised you define this as "essentially they're the same track but without the vocals", cos in my opinion, they are not. I'm even more surprised nobody has yet linked the Winstons recording to its obvious source: the 1964 hit record by The Impressions: Amen.

SmuttySy said on Monday, 26 April 2010:
Also, there's the fact that both the titles and artists are different. This was originally submitted as a cover as essentially they're the same track but without the vocals. This was changed by the approving moderator to an interpolated sample though.

MrBlondNYC said on Friday, 20 November 2009:
You can sample yourself. We have plenty of submissions of artists sampling themselves but we only accept them if they are not from the same album.

c_c said on Friday, 20 November 2009:
I wouldn't call this a true sample of We're a Winner- it was the same drummer, and I don't think you can sample yourself! The rest of the song is definitely a shout-out, though. And a good one.

SmuttySy said on Thursday, 27 August 2009:
The Winstons track breaks down as follows,,,

Intro and initial hooks.
Winstons - 0:00 to 0:13 (Repeated hook until 0:24)
Impressions - 0:00 to 0:14

Melody break.
Winstons - 0:24 to 0:28 (Back to initial hook until 1:02)
Impressions - 0:28 to 0:33

Sweeper
Winstons - 1:02 to 1:11 (Repeated at 2:07) (Back to initial hook until amen break)
Impression - 1:11 to 1:23

The "Amen Break" (Most sampled drum loop in history)
Winstons - 1:27 to 1:34 (Back to initial hook until 2:07, repeat sweeper steps until end)

SmuttySy said on Tuesday, 25 August 2009:
Oh yeah, and don't forget that this loop was performed for real, not sequenced. A real, living person had to physically smash the heck out of a drumset to get this performance. That makes me appreciate this track even more for it's pure genius.

SmuttySy said on Tuesday, 25 August 2009:
The most sampled drum loop in history - 1:27 to 1:34.
Probably several million re-incarnations of this,,,and still counting. Infact almost the entire genre of Drum & Bass, Jungle and Rave were quite heavilly indebted to this sample. I'd even go so far as to say that no other single track has influenced the face of modern music ever.