So why is the Pulp Fiction soundtrack on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
A strange thought occurred to me recently: I wondered what someone would think of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack if they had never seen the movie.
Which is a way of stating that if you take a big step back, the Pulp Fiction soundtrack is a striking and super eclectic collection of songs that spans genres and decades. And then when you slot it together with one of the most famous, groundbreaking – and, I’d argue, flat-out best – films of all time, it’s a really special and magical audio experience (especially tying in the bits of dialog from the movie) that weirdly works as its own musical journey.
I revisited Pulp Fiction the movie several months ago, and the entire thing sizzles along like we’re peering directly into the fever dream of a pop culture and genre movie genius.
And you get that feeling again by chugging through the opening two tracks on the soundtrack: Dick Dale’s wild surf guitar ride, “Misirlou,” into the explosion of hard funk that is Kool & The Gang’s* “Jungle Boogie.”
* I must give quick mention to how great it is when Samuel L. Jackson name checks the band within the movie as Jules, saying at one point, “Hey, that’s Kool & The GANNNNG.”
I had a lot of fun writing about the opening scene of Pulp Fiction – and the critical role “Misirlou” plays in it – in my piece on Dick Dale and His Del-Tones’ Greatest Hits 1961-1976 (#927 of best 1,000 albums ever).
It’s really fun to go back and revisit the opening scene of Pulp Fiction and imagine seeing it (and imagine an entire generation of movie fans seeing it) for the first time. Characters that we only hear referred to as Pumpkin and Honey Bunny decide – seemingly out of nowhere – to rob a very normal-seeming diner that they are eating at. They passionately kiss over their decision, then guns come out, and the sweet if off-kilter Honey Bunny starts screaming about executing people if any patrons of the restaurant move, while dropping some World Class Cusses in the process.
The frame freezes, we see “Miramax Films Presents,” and then we cut to an opening credits sequence as Dick Dale and His Del-Tones’ “Misirlou” comes in red hot over the top.
It’s one of the most exhilarating, strange, shocking, and funny opening scenes in movie history, and “Misirlou” is the rocket fuel that sends Pulp Fiction into orbit. I get chills when watching it even now.
If you weren’t of age by the mid-1990s, it’s hard to explain what a big deal it was that Quentin Tarantino included this wild array of music in his movies, and there’s nothing that was a bigger deal than “Jungle Boogie.” This was indie film culture slamming into the mainstream with force, for one.
And I’ll say for myself that at the time, I was mostly familiar with soft, family-friendly Kool & The Gang hits like “Celebration,” which I’d heard at a million weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs. “Jungle Boogie” by comparison is exciting, edgy, even dangerous.
Punk rock in funk form. And I freaking loved it.
Still do.
While much of the soundtrack digs back into the dusty record bins of pop culture history, there is one exception… at least sort of: Urge Overkill’s cover version of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon.”
Both versions are great, and the UO version gives the material a slightly darker, more mysterious feel that meshes perfectly with the dreamy and ever so slightly surreal section of the movie that focuses on John Travolta’s Vincent Vega and Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace.
The Pulp Fiction soundtrack was my introduction to Urge Overkill, and it led me to get into the excellent album, Saturation (#729).
Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” also (somehow) fits in perfectly with the Mia and Vincent goings on.
If you haven’t revisited Pulp Fiction’s soundtrack in a while, you might be surprised by how far flung and flat out odd some of it is – including the quiet country ballad, “Lonesome Town,” by Ricky Nelson, and the strange-o jangly “Flowers On the Wall,” by The Statler Brothers (which Bruce Willis’ Butch sings along with briefly during the movie while driving).
And it’s taken me this long to get to Chuck Berry’s classic, “You Never Can Tell,” which brings us to Vince and Mia yet again, dancing it up in the middle of Jack Rabbit Slim’s in the hope of winning Mia the trophy she’s been pining for (in between cocaine-snorting breaks, of course).
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to watch Pulp Fiction for approximately the 331st time.
Some stats & info about the Pulp Fiction soundtrack
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Compilations, Movie Soundtracks, Pop Music, Rock Music
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was the Pulp Fiction soundtrack released? 1994
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #141 out of 1,000
Pulp Fiction soundtrack on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Get down, get down.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.