Quentin Tarantino Preferred Elvis to The Beatles as a Teen
Artists don’t always appreciate other artists. Quentin Tarantino was a massive fan of Elvis Presley but not The Beatles. On top of that, he preferred a band that’s often accused of copying The Beatles to The Beatles themselves.
Quentin Tarantino rejected The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and many other rock stars
In the 2022 book Cinema Speculation, Tarantino discussed learning about music history from his friend Floyd. “I was all ears about this firsthand rock ‘n’ roll history, because I wasn’t into ’70s white-boy rock,” he said. “I didn’t give a f*** about Kiss, I didn’t give a f*** about Aerosmith, I didn’t give a f*** about Alice Cooper or Black Sabbath or Jethro Tull. I didn’t own Frampton Comes Alive! I openly rejected that entire culture.
“At 16, I think I heard of Bruce Springsteen, but I’d never heard Bruce Springsteen,” he added. “I was into ’50s rock ‘n’ roll. Not ’60s. Not The Beatles. Not Jimi Hendrix. Not Bob Dylan (that would come later). But ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and ’70s soul music.”
Quentin Tarantino preferred Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, and other stars
Tarantino named the musicians he liked. “Elvis and Stevie Wonder,” he said. “Eddie Cochran and Bootsy Collins. Gene Vincent and Parliament. The Five Satins and Rufus. Jackie Wilson and Rick James.
“The Coasters and the Commodores,” he continued. “Chuck Berry and Barry White. Brenda Lee and Teena Marie. Curtis Mayfield in The Impressions and the Curtis Mayfield that did the Super Fly soundtrack.” Tarantino revealed his friend Floyd was such a huge Elvis fan that he tried to look as much like him as possible.
In ‘Pulp Fiction,’ a character says nobody likes Elvis Presley and The Beatles equally
Tarantino preferred some of The Beatles’ contemporaries to The Beatles themselves. During a 2019 interview with Variety, he said The Monkees and Paul Revere & the Raiders were his favorite bands when he was a kid. He attributed this to the fact that both bands appeared on television so much. Notably, The Monkees had their own sitcom while Paul Revere & the Raiders were known for playing on the show Where the Action Is.
He felt The Monkees and Paul Revere & the Raiders were funny and cool. Songs by Paul Revere & the Raiders appeared on the soundtrack for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a film about some fictional actors, Sharon Tate, and the Manson Family. Tarantino said he put that music in the film partly because he’s nostalgic for the group, and partly because Paul Revere & the Raiders’ Mark Lindsay met Charles Manson a few times.
Perhaps the most memorable connection between Tarantino and The Beatles is a scene in Pulp Fiction where Uma Thurman’s character, Mia Wallace, discusses the Fab Four. She says the world can be divided into “Elvis people” and “Beatles people.” Elvis people can like The Beatles and Beatles people can like Elvis, but nobody likes the two equally. Wallace takes John Travolta’s character, Vic Vega, as “an Elvis man” and they head off to a 1950s diner.
Elvis and The Beatles are both essential icons even if Tarantino preferred one of them.
