Little Green Bag

Album

Little Green Bag

Label

Colossus Records

Genre

Pop rock

Composer(s)

Johannes Bouwens,;Jan Visser

Entered Chart

Mar 21, 1970

Peak Date

May 30, 1970

Released

October 1969

Recorded

Recorded 1969 at Eclipse Studios, Netherlands

Catalog #

Colossus 112

B-Side

Pretty Little Drummer

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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.

Lookin' back on the track for a little green bag,
Got to find just the kind or I'm losin' my mind
Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day,
Lookin' back on the track gonna do it my way.

Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day,
Lookin' back on the track gonna do it my way.
Lookin' back
Lookin' for some happiness

But there is only loneliness to find
Jump to the left, turn to the right
Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind, yeah!
Lookin' for some happiness

But there is only loneliness to find
Jump to the left, turn to the right
Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind.
Lookin' back on the track for a little green bag,

Got to find just the kind or I'm losin' my mind
Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day,
Lookin' back on the track gonna do it my way.
Lookin' back on the track for a little little green bag,

Got to find just the kind or I'm losin' my mind,
Alright.
Lookin' for some happiness
But there is only loneliness to find

Jump to the left, turn to the right
Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind.
Pa pa pa pa pa pa...