All-TIME 100 Songs

Chances are you were listening to George Clinton long before you knew you were listening to George Clinton. Samples borrowed from the complex, multilayered funk he has orchestrated over half a century provided the groove for countless hits by Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, the Notorious B.I.G. and dozens of other hip-hop acts. Even Prince sampled George Clinton. Funkadelic, like Parliament and P-Funk, was just one of the elastic rubrics under which Clinton convened the likes of Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins for a psychedelic rendering of the African-American musical experience, with homage to everyone from James Brown to Jimi Hendrix. “One Nation Under a Groove” marked a high point for Clinton, a chart-topping 1978 single cited by most cognoscenti on their lists of the most influential songs of all time. Its “Feet, don’t fail me now!” refrain was apposite for a musician whose typical concert puts his audience through a four-hour workout. Don’t even think about listening to it sitting down.

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