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Green Onions

by Booker T. & The M.G.'s

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Green Onions 02:55
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Rinky-Dink 02:40
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Mo' Onions 02:54
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about

I mentioned at the time that artists like Art Blakey, The Blackbyrds, Cal Tjader, Shirley Scott, Freddie Roach, Melvin Sparks, Leon Spencer, Dave Pike, Trudy Pitts, Dorothy Ashby, Ronnie Matthews, The 3 Pieces, and others were missing completely from the sheet. 


Booker T. & the MGs’ Green Onions is best known for its self-titled leadoff track, which was a number one single on the Billboard R&B chart – a rare accomplishment for an instrumental track – and eventually climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. But the title track is just one song on a watershed album by the instrumental R&B combo that served as the house band for the Stax label and the backup unit for some of the most iconic soul and R&B artists to record there in the 1960s.
Beyond "Green Onions," which was their biggest hit single, there are so many other great songs on this album which Booker T. & the MGs transformed into timeless R&B instrumental classics, like "Comin’ Home Baby," "Twist and Shout," and Ray Charles’s "I Got a Woman." No matter what song they started with, by the time they were done with it, it was uniquely and unmistakably their own.
The album’s original 12 tracks are executed by the lean but formidable roster of organist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Lewis Steinberg, and drummer Al Jackson, Jr. The reissue also includes two bonus tracks – live renditions of "Green Onions" and "Can’t Sit Down," both recorded at the 5/4 Ballroom in Los Angeles in August 1965. These extra tracks include Donald "Duck" Dunn replacing Steinberg on bass and joined by Packy Axton on saxophone on "Can’t Sit Down."

credits

released October 1, 1962

2012, © 2012 Concord Music Group, Inc.

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Booker T. Jones Memphis, Tennessee

It can be argued that it was Booker T. Jones who set the cast for modern soul music and is largely responsible for its rise and enduring popularity. On classic Stax hits like “Green Onions” and “Melting Pot” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee pushed the music’s boundaries, refined it to its essence and then injected it into the nation’s bloodstream. ... more

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