Where did these ubiquitous 80s/early 90s samples come from?

Cafe Society
1

So, my girlfriend was rummaging through my CD collection last weekend, and came up with all manner of embarrassing stuff which she insisted on playing. Among them were several volumes of the Now That’s What I Call Music compilation series from the late 80s.

Anyway, it struck me that there are two samples that crop up time and time again in cheesy electronic dance music of this era. I am at work at the moment so can’t track down any links to MP3s, but hopefully you will know the ones I mean:

  1. Female voice: “Wooh… Yeah”, usually faded into the background and often with separated out so the “Wooh” falls on the 1 and the “Yeah” on the 3 of a 4-beat bar. In some cases this sample is repeated through the whole song, more or less forming the whole backing beat. This one still crops up from time to time even today.

  2. Deep male voice: “Ah yeah!”, usually used more sparingly at the end of a passage, for example the end of a bridge to lead into a chorus.

You know the ones I’m talking about, right?

So, can anyone tell me where these overused snippets came from originally? Were they sampled from particular songs? Or did they appear on some kind of samples tape for use by budding dance music creators? Enquiring minds want to know!

2

I’m not sure about the specific samples you mentioned in the OP. The way that you describe them doesn’t make them familiar to me. I do know that the group, Art of Noise was responsible for many sound samples that were later used by other artists in the 80’s and 90’s. You may want to check out their work.

3

I’m sure this isn’t the original use, but is “Yeah…Woo!” the bit on “It Takes Two” by Rob Base? If so, it sorta sounds like James Brown, but maybe someone else here knows for sure.

4

Could well be, if that’s the song I think it is. When I’m back home I’ll try and link to some sound files. You’ll know them when you hear them.

I seem to remember one song, I think it was by Norman Cook, where the video actually had an inset in the corner of the screen showing a head mouthing along to this sample throughout the song.