16. Urge Overkill, ‘Girl, You Be A Woman Soon’
Pulp Fiction (1994)

The Moment:

After the sultry dance at Jack Rabbit Slims (coming shortly), Tarantino captures the 'what next?' comedown of a sparkling night dead-on here.

Thurman's Mia puts on Urge Overkill's Neil Diamond cover (on a ridiculously retro reel-to-reel tape player) and dances nervously while snorting coke as Travolta talks himself out of getting fatally laid in the bathroom, only to find his boss's wife OD'd on the sofa. (The vid's in, um, Italian, but you get the idea).

Tarantino Says:

“I’ve always thought my soundtracks do pretty good, because they’re basically professional equivalents of a mix tape I’d make for you at home.”

15. Tomoyasu Hotei, ‘Battle Without Honor Or Humanity’
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

The Moment:

Thurman’s Bride rides a motorcycle to her fateful showdown with nemesis O-Ren Ishii wearing a Bruce Lee jumpsuit, Tarantino cross-cutting between the deadly rivals to the determined bassy thumps of Hotei’s ‘Battle’ (originally from 2000 yakuza forgettable Another Battle).

If there’s a better song for preparing for a fight to the death, we haven’t heard it.

Tarantino Says:

“One of the fantastic things about working with [musical supervisor] RZA is that [he’s] has seen every movie I have, so we could just like, ‘Remember the music they use in the pre-sequence to Invincible Armour?’ ‘Oh, yeah, that could be really good’ or, ‘Remember in Two Champions Of Death that ‘do-do-da-dong!’ sound?’ ‘That would be fantastic!’”

Next: More Morricone, Woo Hoo