Gary Lawrence Murphy blogs about the history of sampling and points out the importance of John Cage:
Williams Mix (1952) samples more than any of us (or any RIAA lawyers) will ever know.
And worth noting too, amidst all the furor a map like Jesse's is bound to generate, and because John noted it too, that Cage's reasons for using these "found art" fragments was identical to the reasons given by top mash-artists today: The creative re-purposing of our common cultural artifacts.
Cage created the work by cutting and splicing magnetic tape recordings. This is one of his more noisy but still interesting compositions. The live recording I have ends with both raucous clapping and booing, which I think captures some of the spirit of Cage's music.
Barnes and Nobles samples in Real Audio. And in the spirit of oratoriolieder who played three Steve Reich tracks at once, I happened to play the Real Audio sample of Williams Mix while I was playing the MP3. Not recommended for the faint of heart. Actually, this stuff sounds tame now, after hearing electronic artists like Autechre and noise artists like Merzbow. Presumably though, Williams Mix sounded outrageous in 1952...
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