Ever heard a brand-new song and immediately thought:

Where have I heard that before?

Sometimes there’s a very good reason.

Popular music constantly recycles itself through samples, interpolations, covers and reworked melodies.

Stella Lefty’s current hit “Boston”, for example, contains an interpolation of Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season”.

Here are 25 other rabbit holes worth exploring.

1. Madonna – Hung Up / ABBA – Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

One of pop’s most instantly recognisable samples.

Madonna turned ABBA’s famous synthesiser into the engine of a completely different dance record.

2. Kanye West – Stronger / Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

French electronic music meets hip-hop and becomes another global hit.

3. The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony / The Rolling Stones

The famous orchestral element came via an Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording connected to the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time”.

It also became one of music’s most notorious rights disputes.

4. MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This / Rick James – Super Freak

That bassline is doing a lot of work.

5. Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby / Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure

Possibly the most famous “why does this sound familiar?” bassline in pop history.

6. Puff Daddy & Faith Evans – I’ll Be Missing You / The Police – Every Breath You Take

A song about grief built around one of The Police’s biggest recordings.

7. Eminem – Stan / Dido – Thank You

Sampling can completely change how audiences perceive the source.

Many listeners discovered Dido through Eminem.

8. Rihanna – SOS / Soft Cell – Tainted Love

A new pop hit built around a sound strongly associated with an older one.

9. Dua Lipa – Love Again / White Town – Your Woman

A brilliant example of a distinctive older musical phrase being recontextualised for another generation.

10. Beyoncé – Crazy in Love / The Chi-Lites – Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)

Those horns had a life before Beyoncé.

11. M.I.A. – Paper Planes / The Clash – Straight to Hell

An unlikely combination that works perfectly.

12. Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know / Luiz Bonfá – Seville

One of the 2010s’ biggest pop songs contains a sample from Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá.

13. Avicii – Levels / Etta James – Something’s Got a Hold on Me

The vocal gives “Levels” its huge soulful lift.

14. Flo Rida – Good Feeling / Etta James

The same source also found its way into another enormous dance-pop hit.

15. Drake – Hotline Bling / Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together

A sparse older soul recording becomes the foundation for modern Drake.

16. Ariana Grande – 7 Rings / My Favorite Things

Not a sample of the famous Sound of Music recording, but an interpolation of the composition’s melody.

17. Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise / Stevie Wonder – Pastime Paradise

A darker transformation of Stevie Wonder’s composition.

18. Mariah Carey – Fantasy / Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love

Pure pop joy borrowing from another brilliantly playful record.

19. The Notorious B.I.G. – Mo Money Mo Problems / Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out

One of hip-hop’s great examples of flipping a familiar disco-era record.

20. Will Smith – Men in Black / Patrice Rushen – Forget Me Nots

If the groove feels familiar, that’s why.

21. 2Pac – Changes / Bruce Hornsby and the Range – The Way It Is

The piano progression became inseparable from both records.

22. Doja Cat – Paint the Town Red / Dionne Warwick – Walk on By

Another example of an older recording gaining an entirely new audience through contemporary pop and rap.

23. Nicki Minaj – Anaconda / Sir Mix-a-Lot – Baby Got Back

Not exactly subtle.

That’s part of the point.

24. David Guetta & Bebe Rexha – I’m Good (Blue) / Eiffel 65 – Blue (Da Ba Dee)

Sometimes an interpolation is so obvious that recognition is the entire appeal.

25. Stella Lefty – Boston / Noah Kahan – Stick Season

And back to 2026.

“Boston” demonstrates that the cycle never ends.

Today’s biggest song can become tomorrow’s musical vocabulary.

Sample vs interpolation: what’s the difference?

A sample uses part of an existing audio recording.

An interpolation recreates part of an existing composition.

A cover creates a new performance of substantially the original song.

For listeners, understanding the difference makes discovering music considerably more fun.

Every new record can contain a doorway into something older.

Follow enough of those doorways and your listening history stops looking like a timeline.

It becomes a web.