Booker T. & The M.G.s - Green Onions

Hear Before You Die. Booker T. & the M.G.s formed as the house band for Stax ­Records and provided playbacks for numerous singers, including Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. During a ­recording break for Billy Lee Riley, 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, Lewie Steinberg on bass and Al Jackson Jr. on drums began messing around with a bluesy organ riff. The president of Stax Records, Jim Stewart, was at the mixing board. He liked what he heard and recorded it. The result: „Green Onions,“ with „Behave Yourself“ as the B-side. The record became a hit when radio DJ Reuben Washington played it four times in a row, even before the band had a name. The single went to #1 on the US R&B chart, #3 on the pop chart, reached #7 in the UK and sold over a million copies. The song was listed as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone magazine and received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999. It was followed by the all-instrumental album „Green Onions“, which is now a classic of the era. The album was included in Robert Dimery‘s 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Booker T. & the M.G.s have been called the most influential stylists in modern American music. Until the 2000s, they played as the house band for countless world stars such as Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Neil Young and many others.

Side B

1. Stranger On The Shore   
2. Lonely Avenue  
3. One Who Really Loves You  
4. You Can‘t Sit Down  
5. A Woman, A Lover, A Friend    
6. Comin‘ Home Baby