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“Momma Miss America” is another instrumental track on the McCartney album, as the only voice heard is that of an engineer announcing that this is take one of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Springtime”. That title was soon changed, as what was to become two separate songs “ran into each other by accident and became one”. Made up as McCartney went along, it was recorded entirely at his London home.
McCartney’s only recent involvement with the song is its inclusion on The McCartney Years box DVD set. (It is used as background music on Disc 2’s “Chronology” menu.) However, as I previously said about “Hot As Sun/ Glasses”, “Momma Miss America” has also been used as bumper music on PBS’ History Detectives TV series.
When listening to it, the thing that really grabs you is the rhythm of the drum. For this reason, its drum break has been sampled in many hip-hop songs, including Common’s “Thisisme”, the Artifacts’ “Flexi With Da Tech(nique)”, the Roots’ “The Fire”, and the Beastie Boys’ “Johnny Ryall”.
Whenever a list is being made of the “greatest samples” in hip-hop, “Johnny Ryall” is on that list. Coincidentally, it came from the Paul’s Boutique album, which is hailed as “the Sgt. Pepper’s of rap” and featured several samples of Beatles songs.
