I was talking about this song to someone a few years ago, and I told him what it reminded me of. It reminds me of Sandy Koufax, who retired before I was born. Ken Burns made a documentary on baseball, and he inserted this song while showing Sandy Koufax pitching against a 1960s pastel-looking background at Dodger Stadium in the early sixties. The music and that time fit so well. That was remarkably powerful at the time.
Green Onions was a very influential instrumental record that was released in 1962. The band was waiting for rockabilly Sun Recording artist Billy Lee Riley at a session. They put the time to good use. Booker T. Jones said, “That happened as something of an accident. We used the time to record a blues which we called ‘Behave Yourself,’ and I played it on a Hammond M3 organ. Jim Stewart, the owner, was the engineer, and he really liked it and wanted to put it out as a record. We all agreed on that, and Jim told us that we needed something to record as a B-side since we couldn’t have a one-sided record. One of the tunes I had been playing on piano we tried on the Hammond organ so that the record would have organ on both sides, and that turned out to be ‘Green Onions.’
Jim Stewart, who was the president of Stax Records, liked the song but the band was not impressed with it at first. He asked Booker T what he wanted to call the song. Booker T replied, “Green Onions”… when Jim asked why Green Onions? Booker T said, “Because that is the nastiest thing I can think of, and it’s something you throw away.”
The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #7 in the UK in 1962. The song was the B side to “Behave Yourself.” Steve Cropper took it to a DJ friend of his in Memphis named Rueben Washington. He played some of the A side but kept playing “Green Onions” over and over.
Steve Cropper: “He played it four or five times in a row. We were dancing around the control room, and believe it or not, the phone lines lit up. I guess we had the whole town dancing that morning.”
Green Onions
Instrumental
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“we couldn’t have a one-sided record.” – that is, until Johnny Winter’s “Second Winter”, a three-sided album with side four blank.
Something about the opening riff of this makes me just want to sit back and listen. And Donald Duck Dunn’s simple 12 bar bass line just keeps it moving.
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Wow….I just looked that up. It was called a sesquialbum… I never heard of that before. “This format was sometimes used to fit more music onto vinyl records, with Johnny Winter’s Second Winter being a famous early example.”
Yes…they have me on that opening riff… I agree…it’s like a constant march. Love Dunn’s bass playing of course…what a band!
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Classic! 😎
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Green Onions are nasty, but so are every other color of onions.
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I like them in the right things…hamburgers and other things…and Italian food.
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along with I’m A Man quite possible my fave tune of, well, right now. such a sweet groove and feels a fresh as I’m sure it did when they first played those first notes…but also such of it’s era. for some reason it’s got me digging around for the theme from the TV show Route 66 now
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I LOVE Route 66 the TV Show…what a great concept.
This song does have a super groove to it and it highlights it’s time. That is why the pastel colors of the early 60s stick in my head with this song.
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I gotta ask – which “I’m a Man”? The Bo Diddley version, or the Steve Winwood/Jimmy Miller version? Either is great and instantly recognizable. And the Nelson Riddle theme for “Route 66” seems like the precursor to Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”. It just sounds like cruising down the highway.
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One smooth groove
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One of the greatest of the 60s instrumentals…and back stories to title too!
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Yes…I love this song and I can hear it at anytime…it always puts me in a good mood.
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