Little Green Bag

"Little Green Bag" is a 1969 song written by Dutch musicians Jan Visser and George Baker (born Hans Bouwens), and recorded by the George Baker Selection at the band's own expense. The track was released as the George Baker Selection's debut single by Dutch label Negram, the B-side being "Pretty Little Dreamer".[2][3]

"Little Green Bag"
Cover of the 1969 Dutch single
Single by George Baker Selection
from the album Little Green Bag
B-side"Pretty Little Dreamer"
ReleasedOctober 1969 (1969-10)
Format7"
Recorded1969 at Eclipse Studios, Netherlands
GenrePop rock[1]
Length3:17
LabelNegram
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Luke Wiley
George Baker Selection singles chronology
"Little Green Bag"
(1969)		 "Dear Ann"
(1970)

The track's original title was "Little Greenback",[4] in reference to the color of the US dollar. The first line of the lyric, "Lookin' back on the track for a little greenback", has three rhymes (underlined); "green bag" would not be a true rhyme. However, the single was given the erroneous title, "Little Green Bag", which some took to be a "bag of marijuana". The "Little Green Bag" title was then retained for all subsequently released versions of the single, as well as the group's 1970 debut album, also titled Little Green Bag.[3]

The single peaked at No. 9 on the Dutch Top 40 singles chart and No. 3 in Belgium. In the United States, the single reached No. 16 in the middle of 1970 on the Cashbox chart and No. 21 on the US Billboard Top 100. In 1992, when the song was used in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs, it became an international cult classic. Also that year, the song reached No. 1 in Japan after being used in a Japanese whiskey commercial.[2][5].

Cover versions
  • In 1970, the group I Punti Cardinali released a version titled "La borsetta verde".
  • In 1970, Quebec singer Bobby Le Clerc recorded a French cover titled "C'est pourquoi".
  • In 1970, the Italian singer Nada recorded an Italian-language version with translated lyrics by Luigi Albertelli under the title "Un passatempo".
  • In 1999, Tom Jones released a cover version of the song recorded with Canadian band the Barenaked Ladies, on his album Reload.[2]
  • In 2007, The Ventures released a version on their album The Ventures – Rocky!

See also

References
  1. Unterberger, Richie. Paloma Blanca at AllMusic. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  2. "George Baker biography". hollandrocks.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2004. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
  3. "Various worldwide releases of the George Baker Selection single, "Little Green Bag"". 45cat.com. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  4. "Little Green Bag". Songfacts.com.
  5. "George Baker Biography". Georgebaker.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
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