They played on hundreds of records, including classics like " Walking the Dog", " Hold On, I'm Comin'" (on which the multi-instrumentalist Jones played tuba over Donald "Duck" Dunn's bass line ), " Soul Man", " Who's Making Love", " I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)", and " Try a Little Tenderness", among others. & the M.G.'s (often, but not always, performing as a unit, and usually supported by a horn section) performed as the studio backing band for Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Delaney & Bonnie and many others in the 1960s. The group was a successful recording combo in its own right, but most of the work by the musicians in the band during this period was as the core of the de facto house band at Stax Records. & the M.G.'s continued to issue instrumental singles and albums throughout the 1960s. Aside from the title track, a "sequel" ("Mo' Onions") and "Behave Yourself", the album consisted of instrumental covers of popular hits.īooker T. Later in 1962, the band released an all-instrumental album, Green Onions. It has been used in numerous movies and trailers, including a pivotal scene in the motion picture American Graffiti. It sold over one million copies and was certified a gold disc. The single went to number 1 on the US Billboard R&B chart and number 3 on the pop chart. For the rest of the day, people were calling in to the station, asking if the record was out yet.
In conversation with BBC Radio 2's Johnnie Walker, on his show broadcast on September 7, 2008, Cropper recalled that the record became an instant success when DJ Reuben Washington, at Memphis radio station WLOK, played it four times in succession, before the track or even the band had a name. & the M.G.'s' "Green Onions" backed with "Behave Yourself". Cropper and radio disc jockeys thought otherwise soon, Stax released Booker T. Stewart wanted to release the single with the first track, "Behave Yourself", as the A-side and the second track as the B-side. Cropper remembered a riff that Jones had come up with weeks earlier, and before long they had a second track. He liked what he heard, and he recorded it. Jim Stewart, the president of Stax Records, was in the control booth. During downtime, the four started playing around with a bluesy organ riff. (the latter making his debut with the company) were in the Memphis studio to back the former Sun Records star Billy Lee Riley. Jones, 20-year-old guitarist Steve Cropper, and two seasoned players, bassist Lewie Steinberg and drummer Al Jackson Jr. In summer 1962, 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. & the M.G.'s formed as the house band of Stax Records, providing backing music for numerous singers, including Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. Problems playing this file? See media help.īooker T. Benny Goodman led the racially integrated Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet a quarter-century prior, and other integrated jazz bands had existed since the 1930s. & the M.G.'s was one of the first racially integrated rock groups, at a time when soul music and the Memphis music scene, in particular, were generally considered the preserve of black culture. Having two white members (initially Cropper and Steinberg, later Cropper and Dunn) and two black members (Jones and Jackson Jr.), Booker T. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee in 2008, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2019. was murdered in 1975, after which Dunn, Cropper and Jones reunited on numerous occasions using various drummers, including Willie Hall, Anton Fig, Steve Jordan and Steve Potts. In 1965, Steinberg was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn, who played with the group until his death in 2012. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T.
As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single " Green Onions". In the 1960s, as members of the Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor and Albert King. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. The original members of the group were Booker T. & the M.G.'s were an American instrumental R&B/ funk band that was influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul.
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