Edwin Birdsong, ‘Cola Bottle Baby’ (1979)

Funk and disco musician Edwin Birdsong, who died in 2019, left a lasting legacy both on his own records and the next generation’s. Prince Paul got there first, melding Birdsong’s “Rapper Dapper Snapper” with a George Clinton groove to create De La Soul’s 1989 hit “Me, Myself, and I,” but it was Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” that sounded 20 years ahead of its time despite being built on a (quirky, wildly funky) 22-year-old framework.