It was on this day in 1994 that Pulp Fiction premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Today’s song is one that you will recognize immediately if you have seen the movie, but you probably had no idea what it was called. The song is Miserlou from Dick Dale and His Del-Tones.

No one knows who the original author of the song is, but it was around as early as the 1920’s. It was during that time that the song was popular with Greek, Arabic, and Jewish musicians. The earliest recording of the song was back in 1927. The song was often a choice for belly dancers to dance to.

Dick Dale recorded the song back in 1962. It was sort of popular around that time as part of the “Surf Rock” craze. It wasn’t until 1994 that the song gained wide spread recognition after it was featured in Pulp Fiction.

The song has been covered by trumpeter Harry James, pianist Vince Guaraldi (of Charlie Brown fame), and even the Beach Boys. Dick Dale covered himself when he rerecorded the song with a faster tempo in 1975.

In honor of Pulp Fiction’s premier 31 years ago – lets go surfin’ with Dick and the Del-Tones