The music in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood moves between cars, homes, television and cinema screens. The official album recreates part of that experience through songs and radio snippets, although it does not include everything heard on screen.
The 31 tracks on the official album
The album released by Columbia Records in 2019 brings together songs, adverts and other radio inserts. Its running order lets you hear a continuous selection from the film’s soundscape, but it is not an exhaustive inventory of every musical fragment. There are also differences between a full song, an edited version and the brief passage that can be heard during a scene. Identifying the performer and the edition helps avoid confusing recordings of the same track.
The following list corresponds to the album’s 31-track programme. The advertising segments keep their own identification so they can be distinguished from the songs. That distinction is useful because the listening experience alternates between music and a radio presenter’s voice, rather than being arranged like a conventional compilation where each track contains only a musical performance.
- 1. Treat Her Right — Roy Head & The Traits.
- 2. Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man — The Bob Seger System.
- 3. Hush — Deep Purple.
- 4. Mug Root Beer Advertisement — advert.
- 5. Hector — The Village Callers.
- 6. Son of a Lovin’ Man — Buchanan Brothers.
- 7. Paxton Quigley’s Had the Course — Chad & Jeremy.
- 8. Tanya Tanning Butter Advertisement — advert.
- 9. Good Thing — Paul Revere & The Raiders.
- 10. Hungry — Paul Revere & The Raiders.
- 11. Choo Choo Train — The Box Tops.
- 12. Jenny Take a Ride — Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.
- 13. Kentucky Woman — Deep Purple.
- 14. The Circle Game — Buffy Sainte-Marie.
- 15. Mrs. Robinson — Simon & Garfunkel.
- 16. Numero Uno Advertisement — advert.
- 17. Bring a Little Lovin’ — Los Bravos.
- 18. Suddenly / Heaven Sent Advertisement — advert.
- 19. Vagabond High School Reunion — radio insert.
- 20. KHJ Los Angeles Weather Report — weather report.
- 21. The Illustrated Man Advertisement / Ready for Action — advert and music.
- 22. Hey Little Girl — Dee Clark.
- 23. Summer Blonde Advertisement — advert.
- 24. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show — Neil Diamond.
- 25. Don’t Chase Me Around — Robert Corff.
- 26. Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon — Paul Revere & The Raiders, with Mark Lindsay.
- 27. California Dreamin’ — José Feliciano.
- 28. Dinamite Jim, English version — I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni.
- 29. You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Quentin Tarantino Edit — Vanilla Fudge.
- 30. Miss Lily Langtry — Maurice Jarre.
- 31. KHJ Batman Promotion — radio promotion.
Which recording is heard and what it is for
Deep Purple appears through Hush and Kentucky Woman. The presence of both reminds us that a band can occupy different positions within a selection without being reduced to its best-known song. The sound of the organ, guitars and vocals adds depth to a city where music accompanies journeys and gatherings. The film does not need to present the group’s full story in order to bring that energy into the characters’ movement.
Paul Revere & The Raiders has a particularly visible presence in the repertoire. Good Thing, Hungry and Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon are included on the disc, while the film also incorporates references to the group and its television image. It is worth separating that cultural use from a documentary reconstruction of all their personal links. Hearing a song inside a fictional house does not prove that it was playing there on a specific historical date.
California Dreamin’ is performed by José Feliciano on the album. The identification matters because the title is usually immediately associated with The Mamas & The Papas. Changing the version changes the texture, vocal delivery and relationship with the rhythm. A list that mentioned only song titles would lose that information and could lead to a different listening experience from the one you had in mind when recalling a scene.
The opening takes its drive from Treat Her Right, by Roy Head & The Traits. At the other emotional extreme, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, by Vanilla Fudge, accompanies the final confrontation and appears in an edit identified with Tarantino. The disc expressly recognises that version. It should not be presented as though every release of the track had the same length, or as an original composition written for the film.
What the disc leaves out
Out of Time, by The Rolling Stones, is heard in the film and does not appear on the 31 tracks above. The orchestral version associated with Metamorphosis has a prominent role in the return to Los Angeles and the approach of the August night. Its absence from the album shows why an official compilation and a film’s complete soundtrack are related sets, but different ones.
There are also pieces of music from television programmes and films watched within the film. These fragments belong to images that the characters consume or take part in. Their function can be very brief: to identify a broadcast, change the mood of a room or preserve the sound of pre-existing material. Their short duration does not make them irrelevant, although it does make them harder to turn into an autonomous song list equivalent to the commercial album.
The adverts and voices from KHJ provide continuity between pieces that, taken in isolation, might seem like a simple retrospective collection. A weather report places the listening in a particular day; a promotion introduces the rapid-fire delivery of commercial radio. That texture helps us imagine a city where several people can share the same broadcast while carrying out different activities. The sound connects spaces without requiring all the characters to meet.
Listening to the full album makes it possible to appreciate that design, while returning to the scenes shows how each piece changes when it is joined to an image. The same song can feel expansive during a journey or unsettling when the viewer knows what is coming. The disc preserves its own musical journey; the film adds glances, silences, noises and events that alter its meaning each time it appears.
More context in the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood guide.