"Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood" soundtrack

Happy Groundhog's Day!

In anticipation of the upcoming Academy Awards, I decided to redo the soundtrack for the film "Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood." Most of the music featured in the film is supposedly being heard on car radios broadcasting L.A.'s Boss Radio station KHJ on three days in 1969: Feb. 8 and 9 and Aug. 8.

But if you look at the soundtrack for the film as compiled by director/writer Quentin Tarantino you'll find that songs are from years before and after 1969. It seemed to me that it would have been better to use songs that would have actually been played on the Top 40 station on those particular days.

But how do you know what songs were being played on KHJ on those particular days? While you can't be absolutely certain, there is a great resource for finding the top hits on KHJ during those weeks: https://93khj.blogspot.com/2008/05/khj-survey-index.html. I used the charts for the weeks of Feb. 5 and 12 and Aug. 6 to determine a new soundtrack for the film.

SIDE A

1. Can I Change My Mind - Tyrone Davis (Treat Her Right - Roy Head & The Traits)
2. Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man - The Bob Seger System
3. River Deep, Mountain High - Deep Purple (Hush - Deep Purple)
4. Mug Root Beer Advertisement
5. Mendocino - Sir Douglas Quintet (Hector – The Village Callers)
6. I’m Living in Shame – Diana Ross and The Supremes (Son of a Lovin’ Man - Buchanan Brothers)
7. You Showed Me - The Turtles (Paxton Quigley’s Had the Course - Chad & Jeremy)

SIDE B

1. Tanya Tanning Butter Advertisement
2. Good Thing - Paul Revere & The Raiders
3. Hungry - Paul Revere & the Raiders
4. Sweet Cream Ladies March Forward – The Box Tops (Choo Choo Train - The Box Tops)
5. I Got a Line on You – Spirit (Jenny Take a Ride - Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels)
6. Proud Mary – Creedence Clearwater Revival (Kentucky Woman - Deep Purple)
7. This Girl is in Love with You - Dionne Warwick (The Circle Game - Buffy Sainte-Marie)

SIDE C

1. Crimson and Clover – Tommy James and the Shondells (Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel)
2. Numero Uno Cologne Advertisement
3. Long Green – The Fireballs (Bring a Little Lovin’ - Los Bravos)
4. Suddenly - Heavenly Sent Fragrance Advertisement
5. Vagabond High School Reunion Advertisement
6. KHJ Los Angeles Weather Report
7. The Illustrated Man Film Advertisement
8. The Nitty Gritty – Gladys Knight and the Pips (Hey Little Girl - Dee Clark)
9. Summer Blonde Advertisement
10. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show - Neil Diamond

SIDE D

1. What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am? - Bill Deal and the Rhondels (Don’t Chase Me Around - Robert Corff)
2. Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon - Paul Revere & the Raiders
3. California Dreamin’ - Jose Feliciano
4. Dinamite Jim (English Version) - I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni
5. I’d Wait a Million Years – The Grass Roots (You Keep Me Hangin’ On – Vanilla Fudge)
6. Quentin's Theme - Charles Randolph Grean Sound (Miss Lily Langtry - Maurice Jarre)
7. Wouldn't You Really Rather Have a Buick Advertisement - Neil Diamond (KHJ Batman Promotion)

One important point is that not all of the songs featured in the film are on the official soundtrack album. I found this nice list of all the songs in the order they appear in the movie: https://screenrant.com/once-upon-time-hollywood-movie-soundtrack-songs/. At one point I planned to replace all the songs, but in order to keep hold of my sanity I decided to focus only on the 22-track soundtrack album.

Three songs on the soundtrack are actually on the KHJ lists: "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" by the Bob Seger System, "Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show" by Neil Diamond and "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon" by Paul Revere & the Raiders. So they're all kept. Also, in the film two other Paul Revere and the Raiders' songs, "Good Thing" and "Hungry" are in a scene where they're heard from an album playing rather than being heard on the radio. So I kept them. Finally, I also kept Jose Feliciano's "California Dreamin'" because I felt it was pivotal to the scene, and "Dinamite Jim" simply because I couldn't figure out what to replace it with.

In other cases, I replaced a band's song with one by the same group, but which appears on the KHJ lists. These include replacing Deep Purple's "Hush" with the band's "River Deep, Mountain High"; and The Box Tops' "Choo Choo Train" with their song "Sweet Cream Ladies March Forward."

From there, it was a matter of trying to find songs from KHJ's lists that matched the basic feel of the songs I was replacing. I put the song I replaced in italics following the song I'm replacing it with. I am kind of shocked that Tarantino didn't use "Quentin's Theme" which is originally from the "Dark Shadows" TV show and was a minor hit on KHJ's list. I mean, how appropriately coincidental is that?

Tarantino takes a number of liberties with "Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood" regarding timeline, and that doesn't stop with the song selection. One part of the film shows a party at the Playboy Mansion, even though Hugh Hefner didn't move into the mansion until 1972. Plus, some characters are based on real people, and others are fabrications. And of course, the climatic ending is a complete alternative history. So in that mindset, creating a soundtrack of songs from different years isn't far-fetched and Tarantino was more than likely going for a certain feel rather than historical accuracy. And on top of all that, licensing issues might have dictated what songs were available.

Still, I personally think my version would have worked just as well and have the added luxury of being tied to the time and place. All the songs are not difficult to track down, but they're from so many different sources that I'm not going to list them all here. I use the same cover for the album.

NOTE: It's now three months later since I posted this and I realized the order of the songs was completely wrong. When I put this together, I must have been looking at a different list rather than the track order. Anyway, besides fixing the track order, I also added in most of the commercials that appear on the actual soundtrack. I left off the Batman promo at the end since it was done sometime in 1966-68 and the TV show had been canceled by the time the movie takes place. In its place, I found a Buick commercial from 1969 with Neil Diamond singing the jingle, and I thought that was an amusing way to end the album. I then divided up the tracks as the vinyl version of the soundtrack was done.