A 153-track playlist of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite songs
If there’s one director who values the impact of music on his films, then it is Quentin Tarantino. The king of Indiewood, Tarantino quickly made a name for himself with his unadulterated movies, championing the audience’s entitlement to entertainment and producing features that provided more gasps, laughs and recoils per minute than any other. While his main medium was, of course, the visual aspect of filmmaking, Tarantino knew that using classic songs would only help his pursuit of viewer satisfaction.
Noting some of Tarantino’s favourite songs feels like a fitting tribute to his deep connection with music. Below is a collection of tracks he holds dear—many featured prominently in his films—along with a dive into the full-length albums he treasures most. Like any dedicated music enthusiast, Tarantino’s favourites likely shift over time, making this playlist an ever-evolving reflection of his tastes. Spanning 153 songs, it offers a glimpse into the eclectic and carefully curated record collection of one of cinema’s most distinctive auteurs.
“One of the things I do when I am starting a movie,” the acclaimed director once said, “When I’m writing a movie or when I have an idea for a film is, I go through my record collection and just start playing songs, trying to find the personality of the movie, find the spirit of the movie. Then, ‘boom,’ eventually I’ll hit one, two or three songs, or one song in particular, ‘Oh, this will be a great opening credit song’,” the director added.
Of course, like most aspects of his life, Tarantino has an almost obsessive love for music. For him, the music is an essential component of his films, not only an add-on. The director’s use of carefully chosen soundtracks has gained as much notoriety as his witty banter and violent style. Under Tarantino’s direction, music moves beyond its conventional function as background noise to become a narrative element that defines entire scenes and guides the film’s emotional tone.
When looking through Tarantino’s long-ranging career and the ten films he’s delivered thus far, it’s hard to avoid the impact music has had on his impressive canon and how, with their unique style and pace, those songs have been equally as vital in establishing the director’s iconography: “To me, the opening credits are very important because that’s the only mood time that most movies give themselves. A cool credit sequence and the music that plays in front of it, or note played, or any music ‘whatever you decide to do’ that sets the tone for the movie that’s important for you”.
He added: “So I’m always trying to find what the right opening or closing credit should be early on when I’m just even thinking about the story. Once I find it, that really kind of triggers me into what the personality of the piece should be, what the rhythm of this piece should be.”
It’s a unique standpoint for a director to be as open about the importance of music in his films and note its huge contributing factor to said films’ success. Likewise, during an interview with Uncut, when noting his ten favourite albums of all time, the director produced some unique choices, picking out two albums from Phil Ochs as well as paying tribute to some of the 1960s’ more obscure acts, all of which can be found in our playlist below.
There is, however, one album that ranks as his absolute favourite of all time: Bob Dylan’s seminal LP Blood on the Tracks. About which, Tarantino once said: “This is my favourite album ever. I spent the end of my teenage years and my early twenties listening to old music–rockabilly music, stuff like that. Then I discovered folk music when I was 25, and that led me to Dylan. He totally blew me away with this. It’s like the great album from the second period, y’know? It’s his masterpiece.”
Collected together alongside a similar playlist of Tarantino’s favourite songs from his movies, we have one of the most definitive Quentin Tarantino playlists of all time.
Check out the 153-track playlist below.
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