Green Onions

Recorded in 1962 at Stax Recording Studio in Memphis by the Stax house band Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Lewie Steinberg, and Al Jackson Jr. Jim Stewart was behind the console, and the piece emerged from a spontaneous studio date. Released as a Stax/Volt single, it became a No. 1 R&B hit and reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. It announced Booker T. & the MG’s as a major instrumental act and helped define the Memphis sound for Stax. It remained the group’s signature tune and one of the best-known instrumental singles of the 1960s. The track has been repeatedly revived, remembered by the Blues Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress, and widely covered and sampled across later soul, rock, and pop contexts.