Booker T and the MGs – Green Onions

 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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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Booker T and the MGs – Green Onions”

  1. “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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    1. 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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  3. Pingback: Booker T and the MGs – Green Onions – MobsterTiger

  5. 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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    1. 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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    2. 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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      1. spencer davis….I remember a 6th grade teacher playing this for us on a reel to reel in class along with I think big yellow taxi i can hear you calling and something by grand funk (flight of the pheonix?)…not sure what part of a grade 6 education this was but it worked

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    3. Quite possibly my fave tune of, well, right now….

      Now that’s a classic expression. I agree completely, both with the choice and the fact that my fave tune changes all the time.

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  10. I guess you could say this is a tribute to Steve Cropper too, who recently died, as with Joe Ely on the other. Believe it or not, the first time I heard this song was on the soundtrack to the movie Quadrophenia. I bought it before I saw the film, and before I bought The Who’s original album. It also introduced me to James Brown’s “Night Train”. No way to describe this song, just go with it.

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    1. Many movies and even TV soundtracks have turned me on to new music. It’s a great way to hear some of them for the first time…It really must have made an impression on you to buy this one first!

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      1. Well, I was just getting into The Who and didn’t have many records by them, so I saw this at Woolworth’s maybe, and I knew it had some of The Who songs on it so I got it. It has the main songs from Quadrophenia on it, which I got soon after. Then I saw the movie later on (great film by the way). So I guess it was a pretty good introduction for me. There’s a couple of outtakes from the album that they put on there, “Get Out And Stay Out” and “Four Faces”.

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  12. Can you say gettin down and groovadelic? These cats play so well together. I like the image of baseball player doing his thing with this music playing. I could also see it as a track in On Any Sunday, the 1971 motorcycle movie.

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    1. Yes…but only on this blog…I will now copyright groovadelic….I’ll split royalities with you 50/50 ways!
      Oh yes…that On Any Sunday it would work as well…but the music fit Sandy pitching and that early 60s pastel color…just perfect.

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  13. Green Onion has always been tattooed in my mind since I was a kid. I listened to it on the radio, in numerous TV commercials, movies, and so on. Back then, I didn’t know the name of the song or the name of the band. Now, I can go to YouTube and listen to it whenever I want. Thank you, Internet.

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