Info: Booker T. & The M.G.'s were the house band for Stax records, the Southern states answer to soul label Motown, providing backing for artists such as Bill Withers, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding before striking out on their own. Unique to the M.G.'s (Memphis Group) was their 50-50 mix of black and white musicians on a predominantly black artists label. Green Onions is an entirely instrumental album with a mix of originals and cover versions such as 'I Got A Woman' by Ray Charles, and Smokey Robinson's 'One Who Really Loves You'. The albums popularity arose from it's chilled-out and cool vibe which appealed to young people of the era, but mostly from it's title-track, a must for any jukebox collection. The song 'Green Onions' almost never came to pass and was recorded while the band were waiting for a recording session and began a spontaneous, improvised jam, thankfully the technician had left the recording machine on. It was originally a B-side on track 6, 'Behave Yourself', however, most radio DJ's seemed to opt for the sister track ensuring it got widespread airplay, reaching no.3 in the Billboard Top 40 in September, 1962. The M.G.'s were made up of bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn, drummer Al Jackson, Steve Cropper on guitar and Booker T. Jones on the organ/piano. Favourite tracks are 'Green Onions', the mellow 'Behave Yourself' and 'You Can Sit Down' which showcases Jackson's drumming nicely
Track Listing:
1. Green Onions
2. Rinky Dink
3. I Got A Woman
4. Mo' Onions
5. Twist and Shout
6. Behave Yourself
7. Stranger On The Shore
8. Lonely Avenue
9. One Who Really Loves You
10. You Can't Sit Down
11. A Woman, A Lover, A Friend
12. Comin' Home Baby
