The Story Behind the 1960s Drum Beat That Launched a Thousand Copycats

Whenever a drummer gets a chance to shine, they will take full advantage of the rare opportunity. For 7 seconds, a catchy drum break in The Winstons “Amen, Brother” catches the listener’s attention. It truly makes you stop and tune in to the beat. This resulted in countless artists and producers sampling the section for decades to come. That’s right, a simple 7-second drum break. But what is the story behind this iconic drum break?

Meet The Winstons

Reigning from Washington D.C, The Winstons were a funk and soul band in the late 1960’s. Singer Richard Lewis Spencer played tenor saxophone with some of soul’s best at the time, such as Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield. Spencer wrote The Winstons debut single release “Color Him Father” in 1969, and the track made its way to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart.

The B-side track was “Amen, Brother”, an instrumental interpretation of the gospel song “Amen.” Though “Color Him Father” was the hit song at the time, “Amen, Brother” became much larger in the grand scheme of music. Winston’s drummer, Gregory C. Coleman, caught everyone’s attention with a 7-second drum break about 1 minute and 26 seconds into the song. This spawned thousands of samples of the drum break.

Thousands of Samples

Seriously, this drum break was sampled over 1,000 times. Due to the rise of hip hop in the early 1980’s, DJs began experimenting with all kinds of tracks they could loop using a turntable. This 7-second drum break was the perfect loop for MCs to rap over the top.

Among other soul tracks with catchy drum breaks, “Amen, Brother” became heavily sampled in hip hop going into the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. An early example is Salt-N-Pepa’s “I Desire” from 1986. In 1988, an edited version was released by hip hop group Mantronix. They took the drum break and made it easier to sample, more polished. This edited version was used on “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A, “It Takes Two” and “Keep It Going Now” by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, as well as countless other mainstream rap and hip hop tracks of the time.

The beat found its way into other genres, and can be heard on the Oasis song “D’You Know What I Mean,” Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good,” and “Push It” by Garbage.

Additionally, you can also hear this iconic drum break in the Futurama theme song. An animated show created in 1999 by Matt Groening of The Simpsons.

Disbandment of The Winstons and Legacy

The Winstons struggled going into the 1970’s. Lead singer and primary songwriter Richard Lewis Spencer quit music altogether in 1970. Spencer never got royalties for any of the songs using the sample. A GoFundMe was created in 2015 to compensate Spencer for the loss of royalties over the years, raising nearly $40,000.