Released October 1969 (1969-10) Genre Pop rock | Format 7" Length 3:17 | |
B-side "Pretty Little Dreamer" Recorded 1969 at Eclipse Studios, Netherlands | ||
"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, with the B-side being "Pretty Little Dreamer".
The track's original title was "Little Greenback", 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. This is an example of a mondegreen.
The song's single peaked at #9 on the Dutch Top 40 singles chart and #3 in Belgium. In the United States, the single reached #16 in the summer of 1970 on the Cashbox chart and #21 on the US Billboard Top 100. In 1992, when the song was used in the Quentin Tarantino film, Reservoir Dogs, it became an international cult classic. Also in 1992, the song reached #1 in Japan after being used in a Japanese whiskey commercial.