Today’s classic song of the day bridges two decades. “Little Green Bag” by the George Baker Selection was released in October of 1969 but didn’t really hit the U.S. charts until early spring 1970. It peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #16 on the Cash Box Top 100 in April of 1970, so I’m going to call this a ’70s song.
“Little Green Bag” was written by Dutch musicians George Baker (born Hans Bouwens) and Jan Visser. The song’s original title was “Little Greenback,” referring to the U.S. dollar, but was given the “Little Green Bag” title by accident. Because of this, some people thought the song was about a little green bag of marijuana, which it wasn’t. (If you listen closely to the lyrics, Baker most definitely sings “greenback,” which rhymes with “track,” as in the lyrics, “Lookin’ back, on the track, for a little greenback.”)
The George Baker Selection, led by the aforementioned Hans Bouwens, grew out of the Dutch band Soul Invention, which formed in 1967. When they got their first recording contract, with the Negram label, they changed their name to the George Baker Selection and Mr. Bouwens changed his name to George Baker, after a character from a detective novel.
When “Little Green Bag” became a worldwide hit, George Baker was working at a lemonade factory. The success of that song (and its European follow-up, “Dear Ann”) enabled Mr. Baker to quit his factory job and become a musician full-time.
The George Baker Selection was much bigger in Europe than they were in the U.S., as witnessed by their 1975 hit, “Paloma Blanca,” which went #1 worldwide. (It only reached #26 here in the States—although it did top Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.) The group kept it going through 1978, when the pressures of the music business caused them to call it quits. Mr. Baker, however, continued to record and tour as a solo artist; he’s now 79 years old.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the 1970 promotional film for “Little Green Bag.” It’s basically George and the band sitting at a cafe, smoking and drinking wine. Very Dutch.
