Songfacts®:

• "Numbers" is a track recorded by Kraftwerk for their 1981 album Computer World. The song is notable for its use of spoken numbers in various languages, which are used as the main vocals. The numbers are spoken in a staccato, robotic style that is characteristic of Kraftwerk's music.
• The track starts with a robotic voice counting from one to eight in German. A simple synthesizer beat kicks in, and the count is repeated with the addition of an English "one, two." The spoken numbers continue throughout the track with numbers being recited in various other languages (French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Russian) by other robotic voices.
• Kraftwerk's Karl Bartos, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider wrote the song. Bartos took inspiration from Cliff Richard and the Shadows' 1962 version of "Do You Want To Dance" titled "Do You Wanna Dance."
  
  "You know Cliff Richard, the funny singer with the great voice," he told Uncut magazine. "He recorded a song called 'Do You Wanna Dance?' The drummer, Brian Bennett, he played an introduction - four or eight bars - and when I was very young, I thought 'Wow!' The drumbeat was so cool and this song stuck in my mind."
  
  "And for some reason on this evening at the Kling Klang studio, my subconscious is bringing the feeling of this drum beat and I played somehow the feeling inside," Bartos continued. "Not the drum beat itself, but my subconscious did a transformation."
• Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 seminal hip-hop track "Planet Rock" contains a prominent sample of the electronic beat from "Numbers," along with chords from another Kraftwerk song, "Trans-Europe Express."
  
  Kraftwerk contacted Afrika Bambaataa's Tommy Boy record label to request compensation for use of the samples from "Numbers." A settlement was reached, which granted the German band a payment of one dollar for each record sold. To offset this expense, Tommy Boy increased the price of the single.
• Fergie's 2006 hit "Fergalicious" samples elements of J.J. Fad's "Supersonic," which itself was based on "Numbers." Arabian Prince, who co-produced "Supersonic," is a Kraftwerk fan.
  
  "Fergalicious" also contains a sample of the opening synth line from Kraftwerk's "It's More Fun to Compute."