Released 30 years ago on Sept. 27, the soundtrack to 'Pulp Fiction' did more than just score the groundbreaking film. Director Quentin Tarantino's novel use of pop songs created a format he'd use throughout his career — and inspired many others.
"Article published in Grammy.com. Author: Farah Joan Fard.
"I love you, Pumpkin."
"I love you, Honey Bunny."
If these lines immediately beam Dick Dale’s version of "Misirlou" into your head, gliding down the double harmonic scale, surf beat kicking, then chances are you have seen Pulp Fiction. The cult classic and its soundtrack turn 30 this fall.
Debuting in September 1994 ahead of the film’s October release in the United States, Pulp Fiction's soundtrack became its own pop culture zeitgeist, eventually peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 and meandering through the chart for over 70 weeks. Urge Overkill’s cover of Neil Diamond’s "Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon" — soundtracking a pivotal scene between Uma Thurman and John Travolta's characters — surged in popularity.
Pulp Fiction and its soundtrack defined director Quentin Tarantino’s knack for music in film, to the point where the combined efforts of him and his music supervisors are synonymous with his auteurship.
"Having ‘Misirlou’ as your opening credits is just so intense it just says, ‘you are watching an epic, you are watching this big old movie just sit back’," Tarantino noted in the book accompanying The Tarantino Connection, a collection of his soundtrack works.
GRAMMY-nominated music supervisor Mary Ramos, who has worked with Tarantino for almost 30 years, starting out in the music department for Pulp Fiction, has noted Tarantino's passion for music and story. "His imagination is crazy. And I’ve made it my mission to make sure he can tell the stories he wants to tell."
Mission accomplished. While it is well documented that Tarantino often writes scenes around a song in his mind, or builds personalities with music, Ramos makes sure those scenes come to life and the personalities get to sing, sometimes literally. After all, as Jules tells Vincent in the film – one of the many snippets of dialogue included in the soundtrack, and the name of one of the tracks, "personality goes a long way."
"Misirlou" was not the sole pop song used in Tarantino's Oscar-nominated indie. Rather than leverage a traditional film score, Tarantino filled the film with surf tracks and memorable hits. Tracks by the Tornadoes and the Lively Ones set the raucous tone for some of Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield’s scenes; those high-energy cuts are a sharp contrast to Dusty Springfield’s "Son of a Preacher Man," and the aforementioned "Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon," both of which highlight Mia Wallace’s dreamy, mischievous, and alluring nature. Elsewhere, Chuck Berry’s "You Never Can Tell" provides the playful track to one of the most iconic scenes: the Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest.
"Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon" and "Misirlou" were not just catchy tracks within the film’s timeline. Instead, these songs built leitmotifs and character traits, blending decades and using past pop culture references to propel Pulp Fiction's sprawling and intersecting narrative.
"What makes Quentin standout is his bold use of music. Oftentimes it is a main character in his movies. The reason is the referential element to his storytelling. We respond to Quentin because music is so much in the forefront and it’s such a bold use, like using David Bowie in a World War II movie. That’s bold, and incredible, and remarkable," Ramos told Variety in 2016.
Further, Tarantino's characters often interact with the score in what's referred to as diegetic sound — songs in a character’s life, often chosen by the character in scene. The audience vibes with Mia as she presses play on Urge Overkill to start the night, and also listens in as Butch as he merrily sings along to the Statler Brothers' "Flowers on the Wall." The song breaks the audience into Butch's mindset that he’s going to be able to flee from Marsellus Wallace’s watchful eye; then, just as the lyrics bounce to "it's good to see you, I must go, I know I look a fright," we see Marsellus stop in front of the car and turn to spot Butch. Chaos ensues.
"That’s one of the things about using music in movies that’s so cool, is the fact that if you do it right, if you use the right song, in the right scene; really when you take songs and put them in a sequence in a movie right, it’s about as cinematic a thing as you can do," Tarantino explained when detailing his process of melding music with film.
And while Tarantino is largely credited as the genius behind this use of music and character development, Ramos plays an enormous role. "She is hands down one of the most unsung heroes," Tarantino said of Ramos.
"I'll take some weird soundtrack from some weird Japanese movie, then it's Mary's job to track it down and clear it for me," Tarantino said of Ramos, praising her ability to hunt down permissions for a song to match his vision. "I didn't even realize how tough that is in some cases."
Tarantino continued to describe a sample Ramos cleared for a later film, 2015's Hateful Eight. In order to use a track from the Ennio Morricone score to The Exorcist 2, Ramos had to track down and secure permission from the three girls who sang "la la la" on the song.
"Even though she's going through all this trouble and trials and tribulations, and has to be a detective, she doesn't want me to know," Tarantino continued. "Her whole mantra is she doesn't want to disappoint me."
To that point, the iconic "Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon" almost didn’t happen.
"With "Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon," Neil Diamond’s publisher turned us down. And I wrote a letter to Neil [describing] how the scene doesn’t glorify drugs at all…" Ramos told Variety in 2019. "It turned a no into a yes, which was really kind of a win and a great feeling. It’s a great feeling to be able to not have to tell Quentin he can’t have something because of a technicality or red tape."
Pulp Fiction charted a new course for soundtracks. Of course, Martin Scorcese’s soundtracks are celebrated, and many popular soundtracks have mingled on the charts, including Flashdance, Reality Bites and its launch of Lisa Loeb’s "Stay", and Good Morning, Vietnam, which won a GRAMMY Award for best Comedy Album due to its inclusion of comedic monologues from Robin Williams. The soundtrack to Singles also helped garner popularity for grunge music and became hugely popular before the film was released. Never before had music served as more than a retrospective or a vehicle to market a new song; in Pulp Fiction, music made for significant character development, soundtracking their inner monologue and preferences.
Tarantino has continued to use diegetic sound. Decades after Mia Wallace’s dance moves first hit the big screen, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood allowed audiences to be in on Sharon Tate and Cliff Booth's musical choices. Because the characters choose the music, layered with Ramos and Tarantino’s ability to build such a personable sonic landscape, the viewer explores some lesser-known tracks and is brought into their timeline.
"You’re not going to get the Billboard top-charting songs from 1969 on this soundtrack, but what’s more important is the time machine aspect of it," Ramos said about the film’s soundtrack. "Quentin wanted to stay rooted in the period and utilize his memory of KHJ Boss Radio in Los Angeles. The radio stations and the DJs are stars in the movie as well and every character is listening to them."
The diverse music sources and character perspective holds true for Tarantino’s work, and persists into his future films. To say that Hotei’s "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" is forever burned into collective pop culture memory with Kill Bill would be an understatement. "There is a Tarantino bump that’s given to music he’s used in his films," Ramos has said, and cited the example of "Woo Hoo" by The 5.6.7.8s, boosted by Kill Bill: Vol. 1.
In 2011, Tarantino was recognized at the 16th Critics' Choice Awards with the inaugural Music+Film Award, largely credited to his use of sourced music and impact of his film’s soundtracks. Almost 15 years later, the impact is still strong. This year, May December leveraged pre-existing score from the Go-Between to a highly dissonant impact. Directors like Edgar Wright have mentioned inspiration from Tarantino, and it’s not hard to see this played out in the music-driven scenes of Baby Driver or even Shaun of the Dead. And, as some other critics see it, not everyone is as successful as Tarantino and Ramos when it comes to a great music edit.
Would Pulp Fiction have been such a chart topping success without this, or as iconic without scenes like the Jack Rabbit Slims dance contest?
"I have Quentin's original handwritten notes for Pulp Fiction and he wrote down five or six potential songs for each music cue," Ramos said in a previous interview. "That [Chuck Berry] was his No. 1 for that particular scene."
Well, then. I said, goddamn!
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