Little Green Bag

"Little Green Bag" is a 1969 song written by Jan Visser and George Baker (credited as Hans Bouwens), and recorded by the George Baker Selection at the band's own cost. The 7″ single, debut of the George Baker Selection, was released by the label Negram. The B-side was "Pretty Little Dreamer".^[1] In 1970 "Little Green Bag" appeared on the album Little Green Bag of the George Baker Selection.

The song reached the number 9 position in the Dutch Top 40, and the number 3 position in Belgium. In the summer of 1970, it reached the number 16 position on the Cash Box magazine chart and 21 in the Billboard Top 100 in the U.S.. In 1992, when the song was used in the film Reservoir Dogs, it became an international cult classic. Also in 1992, the song reached the number 1 position in Japan, after it was used in a Japanese whiskey commercial.^[1]^[2]

In 1999, Tom Jones released a cover of the song recorded with the Canadian band Barenaked Ladies on the collaborations album Reload.^[1]

Musical analysis

The song features a "jazzy" bass intro, with a tambourine played on the off beats. The bass line is played twice followed by a drum groove with a "bounce" feel. The vocals start and are sung in a mellow, cool way, then they build. By the chorus the song starts to resemble romantic Spanish music.

In popular culture

Featured during in the iconic "hero walk" in the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs.
Featured in the Simpsons episode HABF18 ("Jazzy and the Pussycats") during the Reservoir Dogs parody.
Featured in the 26th episode of Montreal-made drama series Fortier. The song accompanies a scene in which a serial killer hides and transports one of his victims in a very large green hockey-equipment bag.
Featured in the 9th episode of the website based flash cartoon "College University". In a parody of Reservoir Dogs, the band O.A.R. plans a diamond heist (and details minivans) during the annual campus Battle of the Bands.
Featured in a television advertisement for Heineken beer. ^[3]
Featured in a Japanese whiskey commercial.
Featured in a Trident Splash gum commercial (2006).
Featured in the BBC British sitcom Coupling episode "Sex, Death and Nudity"; when Steve, Patrick, and Jeff "play" Reservoir Dogs before going into a funeral.
Featured in an episode of Everwood; the episode opens with a scene in which the camera circles a table the characters are sitting at (just like in Reservoir Dogs), and the next scene is a slow-motion walk of the characters as they go to school the next day, with Little Green Bag playing.
Featured at the end of the BBC sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf episode "Back in the Red: Part II" to accompany the 'Dibbley Family' sequence, although it was originally planned that a Monkees song was to be used.
Featured in the Freaks and Geeks episode "Chokin' and Tokin'" when Lindsay smokes marijuana for the first time.
Used in an early 1990s Saturday Night Live skit entitled "Quentin Tarantino's Welcome Back Kotter" as an homage to Reservoir Dogs.
Sampled by Apathy and Celph Titled in "Fix Your Face" on their album No Place Like Chrome.
Baker appears in a music video for the song as part of Lee Hazelwood's 1970 Swedish television special "Cowboy in Sweden".
Featured in the end credits of the Playstation 2 Under the Skin by Capcom.
Featured in a Telus commercial (2008).
In Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth the song is played while the main characters do a slow motion walk.