Opposable thumbs, tool use, self-awareness...

But, it turns out, all those things... Other animals do those things, too.

One thing I can never stop thinking about, though, is music.

And of course there are other organisms that sing, but here is a thing that no other organism has ever done

[Quartet singing] Oops, I did it again

I played with your heart

Got lost in the game

Oh, baby, baby

[Hank] Layers of remix and

collaboration and historical context that go into that six second clip of

a barbershop quartet singing "Oops! I Did It Again" are just... *kisses hand in Italian gesture*

All the tools that we use to understand and manipulate the world

are built brick by brick by individual humans.

And, a lot of times, we can't see those bricks, but, with music,

oftentimes, we can.

Several times in my life have been listening to some old, interesting song

that I'd never heard before and then suddenly I realize I have heard it before.

Hundreds of times!

You could probably tell that that's about to happen with this song.

Ray Charles, obviously, is iconic.

This song, "I Got A Woman"', is one of the most covered songs of all time.

And you probably know that "I Got a Woman" was sampled,

fairly recently, in a super popular song.

[Ray Charles singing] She give me money,

when I'm in need

[Hank] But you very well may have known that that was a sample from Ray Charles, and Kanye West's "Gold Digger"...

But you probably did not know about this.

[The Souther Tones singing] He know he threw my mother's name

Yeah, and he's left my heart in pain

The Southern Tones were a gospel group.

Ray Charles heard that song in the radio, and then immediately wrote

"I Got a Woman" using the same melody!

So, that, my friends, is the path from "It Must Be Jesus" to "Gold Digger"!

This, ridiculously beautiful lobby surfer track is wonderful to listen to.

It's called "I Got the..."

It has a lot of complexity, a lot of orchestration.

There's a lot going on and you probably have never heard of it except

[Song playing]

[Hank] Slim Shady!

I wanna know the story of how this track happened so bad!

Eminem, if you would like to email me, I'm very curious.

Speaking of super weird, this Timmy Thomas track

"Why Can't We Live Together" is like a weird mix of organ and percussion and

It probably sounds pretty familiar to you right now, and you may have figured out already

But, if you haven't, allow me to speed it up a little bit add some reverb and take the high end off

And suddenly...

*"Hotline Bling" by Drake plays*

Here's another song that you almost certainly have never heard before.

Singing in the background right now is Linda Lyndell

She was a backup act for Otis Redding and even James Brown.

And when she released her pretty spectacular R&B single

"What A Man", it went bad because she was white.

The KKK told her to retire,

otherwise, they would make her life miserable for being a white person who was

singing Black Music.

And she did that and the song was largely forgotten

until...

[Linda Lyndell singing] What a man, what a man, what a man

What a mighty good man

Say it again, now

[Hank] In 2003, after Salt-n-Pepa's song came out, Linda Lyndell actually came out and performed

her song "What A Man" for the very first time in public.

And now that song leaves on again in another hemisphere

after Korean pop music group I Oh I did a version of it in 2016.

Some people don't like samples.

They say that it shows a lack of creativity, or that they're stealing from other artists.

But, when I look at this,

I see the example of the thing that actually makes

humans unique and so powerful.

There are no new things. I stole every one of these words

I'm saying from the person who made the word up, and we don't remember that person's name.

So I find this beautiful, and I love to be able to see a little bit into that process of human creation

as long as everybody's getting credit.

Now let me leave you with an amazing funk track called "Found A Child" by Ballin' Jack, which you have never heard,

except that you have.

*"Found A Child" plays in the background*

Gets me every time, John.

I'll see you on Tuesday.