Little Green Bag by George Baker Selection

Album: Little Green Bag (1970)

Charted: 21

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Songfacts®:

Names are the theme that haunt this song. It was supposed to be called "Little Greenback," like in money, but the seven-inch single debut was misprinted by publisher label Negram. Wouldn't you know it, it became their top hit, and so became known by the wrong name. Worse yet, they had to change the name of the album to reflect that. If you listen to the words, "greenback" is actually the word sung.
George Baker, meanwhile, was actually born Johannes Bouwens. He's from the Netherlands, you see, and so "Little Green Bag" first made the top-40 on the Dutch charts, then Belgium, and finally internationally.
Have you ever heard such a unique construction? It starts out with jazzy bass and tambourine, with a bouncy bass line and drum. Then the vocals slide in with an almost whisper, and then suddenly the song opens up and it's a Spanish romance ballad.
Yes, Quentin Tarantino fans, this song was of course your very first introduction to the QT universe. It's the opening credits to Tarantino's debut Reservoir Dogs, with the suits and shades ambling down the street. This pushed it back to international success yet again in 1992, causing it to pop up in weird places like Japanese whiskey commercials.

Comments: 11

Bob F from AlaskaThey used it to close out a series we were watching called Warrior. They pumped up the bass line and when the singing came in it was in Mandarin. So cool.
Lugnuts from Rocky Mountains It was used on an episode of Red Dwarf..
Robyn from TasmaniaWho was the drummer?
C Wilson from Visalia, CaliforniaAnd now, in homage to the slow-motion walk in Reservoir Dogs, it’s featured similarly in the Amazon Studios original movie, Troop Zero (2019).
Kees Raaphorst from WateringenThis song was actually the result of someone who told Sjors Bakker to create original music, something most musicians are afraid of because the mainstream music public needs way to much time to get the hang of a tune thad doesn't at least sound like something already present in their memory. The result was a Sparkling Surprisingly technical But easy to get the hang off feel good song. Witch in my opinion stood miles above everything they ever created. I personally (6 when it came out) did not know little green bag was a George Baker song, much later i had a hard time to believe it was actually written by the George Baker selection. Because the rest of their songs i grew up with sounded very cheesy and very record company pleasing to me. Nowadays i like all their songs.. but mainly because of the BIG (George Baker Smile) nostalgia factor.. ;-D
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 7th 1970, the George Baker Selection performed "Little Green Bag" on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
And eight days later on March 15th it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #82; ten weeks later on May 24th, 1970 it peaked at #21 {for 1 weeks} and spent 13 weeks on the Top 100...
The Dutch group two other Top 100 records; "Dear Ann" {peaked at #93 in 1970} and "Paloma Blanca" {reached #26 in 1976}.
Raunchy from Tulsa, OkOooo! I just heard this song on a Motorola phone commercial. So cool. Didn't know it came out so long ago (1970). I gots ta check out the lyrics now. Too bad the band didn't have any more hits. Never heard of them. What a lost treasure this little song is. Wild & funky!
Elmer H from Westville, OkHmmm. Didn't know the song was supposed to be "Little Greenback!" Interesting. Anyway, I first heard it while in the Army doing time in the Vietnam War. The song was aired by AFVN radio over there. It's a funky weird little song, but I still love it. It's being used in a current [Nov. 2013] TV commercial for something I can't remember! Hemorrhoid ointment perhaps?! Haaaaa
Budoshi from SandnessjNo wonder, Tom.. Weed is always green :D
Tom from West Newton, MaEveryone in America thought the song was about marijuana.
David from Nottingham, United KingdomThis song was recently used at the beginning and end of the ITV comedy play "The Security Men" starring Bobby Ball and Brendan O' Carrol.

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