Booker T
and the M.G.’s was the house band for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and
as such they appeared on virtually every single that Stax released during its
heyday in the Sixties and early Seventies. The band can be heard backing Stax’s
star vocalists on recordings by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, William Bell, Eddie
Floyd, Carla Thomas and others.
The band
consisted of Booker T. Jones on organ/piano; Steve Cropper on guitar; Donald
“Duck” Dunn on bass; and Al Jackson on drums. This versatile and talented ensemble
was equally comfortable providing accompaniment for blues or ballads, rock, or R&B.
In addition to providing Stax singers with a backing band, they released
instrumental singles under their own name including “Groovin,” Hip Hug Her,”
“Time is Tight,” and their biggest hit, “Green Onions.”
With the
addition of the Memphis horns, the band also recorded instrumental tracks as
the “Mar-Keys.”
In the
early Eighties, the surviving members of the band, Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn
were members of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s Blues Brothers band and were
featured in the movie, “The Blues Brothers.” They returned with Ackroyd in
“Blues Brothers 2000.”
The band
recorded several fine studio albums in the Sixties including “Green Onions”
(1962), “Soul Dressing” (1965) and “Hip Hug Her” (1967), but “The Best of
Booker T and the M.G.’s” (1968) may be all you require.
