Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, established many of the writer-director’s signature stylistic trademarks, like graphic violence, idiosyncratic dialogue, homage-driven visuals, and nonlinear storytelling. The movie also introduced audiences to Q.T.’s penchant for filling his soundtracks with needle-drops.
The music of Reservoir Dogs is mostly diegetic, appearing on the characters’ favorite radio show, K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the ‘70s. The movie features such iconic musical moments as the “Little Green Bag” slow-motion walk across a parking lot and the “Stuck in the Middle with You” torture scene.
“Little Green Bag” By The George Baker Selection
Reservoir Dogs opens with Tarantino’s first dialogue scene as the thieves discuss the hidden meaning of “Like a Virgin” and the proper etiquette of tipping while they eat breakfast in a diner before the diamond heist. As they leave the diner, Tarantino’s first soundtrack needle-drop kicks in.
Over the opening titles, the thieves walk across the parking lot of the diner on their way to the heist in glorious slow-motion, set to the iconic guitar strings of the George Baker Selection’s pop rock hit “Little Green Bag.”
“Harvest Moon” By Bedlam
Reservoir Dogs’ biggest narrative swing arrives after Mr. Orange shoots Mr. Blonde dead to save the life of the cop he’s torturing, effectively revealing himself to be the undercover cop in the group. After this bombshell reveal, Tarantino goes back to when Mr. Orange first got the undercover assignment.
Bedlam’s “Harvest Moon” plays as Mr. Orange joins his partner in a diner and tells him that he’s going to go undercover with some thieves planning a diamond heist.
“Fool For Love” By Sandy Rogers
Before the stakeout, Mr. Orange can be seen getting ready to leave his apartment. This apartment is filled with Easter eggs, from a Silver Surfer poster on the wall to a Travis Bickle homage in the mirror.
During this brief apartment scene, Sandy Rogers’ country pop ballad “Fool for Love” plays on the soundtrack. This was the title song that Rogers recorded for the Robert Altman movie of the same name.
“I Gotcha” By Joe Tex
One of the catchiest songs in Reservoir Dogs is “I Gotcha” by Joe Tex. The funk classic was once covered by Liza Minnelli on a 1972 TV concert. Tarantino licensed the track for the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack.
The song can be heard on Nice Guy Eddie’s car radio as he drives to the warehouse to meet up with the surviving thieves. It carries over into the shocking sequence of Mr. White and Mr. Pink mercilessly beating the cop that Mr. Blonde abducted.
“Magic Carpet Ride” By Bedlam
“Harvest Moon” isn’t the only Bedlam song that appears on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack. During the same sequence of Mr. Orange preparing to go undercover, “Magic Carpet Ride” plays as he tells his rehearsed drug-dealing anecdote to Mr. White and Joe Cabot to earn their trust.
Tarantino has often explored the parallels between acting and going undercover. Dr. Schultz tells Django he’ll be “playing a character” at the Candyland plantation. In Inglourious Basterds, a German movie star teams up with Allied spies to infiltrate a Nazi bar. In Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Orange’s partner tells him that an undercover cop needs to be “Marlon f***ing Brando” in order to convince his gangster colleagues that he’s one of them.
“Coconut” By Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” plays over the end credits of Reservoir Dogs. This is one of Tarantino’s greatest (and most underrated) uses of jarring juxtaposition on the soundtrack. The music-free ending of the movie is thrilling and intense, with plenty of death and betrayal and a gun-toting police raid.
When the credits kick off on a sudden barrage of off-screen gunfire, that tension is beautifully deflated by the goofy nature of the calypso-inspired gem. Nilsson’s lighthearted novelty song is contrasted with the shocking events of the final scene.
“Hooked On A Feeling” By Blue Swede
When modern audiences think of Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” and its association with cinema, Guardians of the Galaxy is the first movie that comes to mind. “Hooked on a Feeling” appears on the “Awesome Mix” tape that Peter Quill listens to throughout the movie. But Tarantino used the Blue Swede hit in his debut feature long before James Gunn used it in his Marvel space opera.
In Reservoir Dogs, “Hooked on a Feeling” plays when Mr. White, Mr. Pink, and Nice Guy Eddie arrive to pick up Mr. Orange from his apartment before staking out the jewelry store they intend to rob.
“Stuck In The Middle With You” By Stealers Wheel
Easily the most iconic musical moment in Reservoir Dogs is when Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” plays over Mr. Blonde brutally torturing a police officer he kidnapped and tied to a chair. There’s a disturbing juxtaposition between the lighthearted melody of the Stealers Wheel classic and the truly horrifying images on-screen.
The fact that Mr. Blonde puts on the song himself and casually dances along to it as he attacks the helpless cop with a straight razor makes the violence even more unsettling. It’s similar to the haunting “Singin’ in the Rain” scene from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.