Where does Amen, Brother come from?
Seven seconds near the end of a B-side. Thousands of tracks have borrowed them since.
Amen, Brother · The Winstons, 1969
Where it came from
- Was played by Gregory Coleman (drummer, The Winstons). Coleman played the seven-second, four-bar break at about 1:26. He died homeless and destitute in 2006. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break, Wikipedia: The Winstons, Yahoo News: How the Amen break became the most sampled drum break
- Was written by Richard Lewis Spencer (bandleader, The Winstons). Spencer owned the copyright, learned of the sampling only in 1996 and never received royalties. A 2015 GoFundMe raised over £18,000 for him. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break, The Week
What it became
- Compiled on Ultimate Breaks and Beats (compilation, 1986). Included on Ultimate Breaks and Beats in 1986, a compilation of clean breaks for DJs. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break
- Sampled by I Desire (Salt-N-Pepa, 1986). One of the first tracks to sample the Amen break. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break, MusicBrainz
- Sampled by King of the Beats (Mantronix, 1988). Edited and processed the break into the center of the track. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break, Wikipedia: Mantronix
- Sampled by Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A, 1988). Uses the Amen break. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break, MusicBrainz
- Sampled by Keep It Going Now (Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, 1988). Uses the Amen break. Source: Wikipedia: Amen break
- Sampled by Futurama theme (Christopher Tyng, 1999). The original theme samples the Amen break. The HD-era remix swapped it for a new drum recording. Source: Wikipedia: Futurama, Wikipedia: Amen break, MusicBrainz
- Sampled by The Real (G Jones & EPROM, 2026). Sampled in 2026. Source: MusicBrainz
- Sampled by Neptune (Known To Be Lethal, 2012). Uses the Amen break. Source: MusicBrainz
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