Sun, September 27, 2026 at 2:16 PM UTC
Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 crime film Pulp Fiction holds a 92% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet its music drew acclaim without a traditional film score: Rolling Stone ranked its soundtrack No. 7 of all time.
The film follows linked stories involving two hitmen, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of robbers. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman play key roles in the cast.
Instead of asking a composer to write music for those scenes, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/best-film-movie-soundtracks-original-scores-b2996377.html” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Tarantino chose existing songs. The result mixes surf rock, soul, and rock and roll, often letting a familiar recording give a scene its rhythm.
Why Did Tarantino Skip a Traditional Score?
The film opens with Dick Dale’s recording of “Misirlou,” whose fast guitar sound leads into the credits. “Having ‘Misirlou’ as your opening credit, it’s just so intense,” Tarantino said in a 1994 interview.
He also used Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” when Thurman and Travolta’s characters dance together. Meanwhile, Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” plays as Travolta’s character arrives to meet her.
The soundtrack album includes songs as well as bits of the film’s dialogue. However, the album does not contain every song heard in the movie, so it is not a complete record of its music.
In 2024, Rolling Stoneplaced the album seventh on its list of 101 greatest soundtracks. More recently, The Independent ranked it fourth among 40 film soundtracks.
Those lists reflect editorial choices, while the Rotten Tomatoes figure measures positive critics’ reviews of the film. Together, they show separate praise for the movie and its music.
The film has 186 critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a 96% audience score. Its soundtrack shows how Tarantino shaped scenes with songs viewers could recognize, without commissioning a traditional score.
This story was originally published byMen’s Journalon Sep 27, 2026, where it first appeared in theNewssection. Add Men’s Journal as aPreferred
