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Booker T. & the M.G.'s | |
|---|---|
 Booker T. & the M.G.'sc. 1967 (L–R):Donald "Duck" Dunn,Booker T. Jones (seated),Steve Cropper,Al Jackson Jr. | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1962–1971, 1973–1977, 1992–2012 |
| Labels | Atlantic,Stax |
| Past members | Booker T. Jones Steve Cropper Al Jackson Jr. Lewie Steinberg Donald "Duck" Dunn Bobby Manuel Carson Whitsett Willie Hall Steve Jordan Steve Potts |
| Website | www |
Booker T. & the M.G.'s were an Americaninstrumental,R&B, andfunk band formed inMemphis, Tennessee, in 1962. The band is considered influential in shaping the sound ofSouthern soul andMemphis soul. The original members of the group wereBooker T. Jones (organ, piano),Steve Cropper (guitar),Lewie Steinberg (bass), andAl Jackson Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members ofthe Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band ofStax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists includingWilson Pickett,Otis Redding,Bill Withers,Sam & Dave,Carla Thomas,Rufus Thomas,Johnnie Taylor, andAlbert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". As originators of the uniqueStax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era.[1][2]
In 1965, Steinberg was replaced byDonald "Duck" Dunn, who played with the group until his death in 2012. Al Jackson Jr. was murdered in 1975, after which Dunn, Cropper, and Jones reunited on numerous occasions using various drummers, includingWillie Hall,Anton Fig,Steve Jordan and Steve Potts.[1]
The band wasinducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, theMusicians Hall of Fame and Museum inNashville, Tennessee in 2008, theMemphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012, and theBlues Hall of Fame in 2019.[3]
Having two white members (initially Cropper and Steinberg, later Cropper and Dunn) and two Black members (Jones and Jackson Jr.), Booker T. & the M.G.'s was one of the firstracially integrated rock groups,[4] at a time whensoul music, and theMemphis music scene in particular, were generally considered the preserve ofBlack culture.[5]
Booker T. & the M.G.'s formed as the house band ofStax Records, providing backing music for numerous singers, includingWilson Pickett andOtis Redding.[6] In summer 1962, 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, 20-year-old guitarist Steve Cropper, and two seasoned players, bassist Lewie Steinberg and drummer Al Jackson Jr. (the latter making his debut with the company) were in theMemphis studio to back the formerSun Records starBilly Lee Riley. During downtime, the four started playing around with a bluesy organ riff.Jim Stewart, the president of Stax Records, was in the control booth. He liked what he heard, and he recorded it. Cropper remembered a riff that Jones had come up with weeks earlier, and before long they had a second track.[7]
Stewart wanted to release the single with the first track, "Behave Yourself", as the A-side and the second track as the B-side. Cropper and radiodisc jockeys thought otherwise; soon,Stax released Booker T. & the M.G.'s' "Green Onions"[6] backed with "Behave Yourself". In an interview withBBC Radio 2'sJohnnie Walker in 2008, Cropper recalled the song's immediate popularity after Reuben Washington, a disc jockey at Memphis radio stationWLOK, played it four times in a row, prompting calls from listeners asking if it had been released.
The single went to number 1 on the USBillboardR&Bchart and number 3 on thepop chart. It sold over one million copies and was certified agold disc.[8] It has been used in numerous movies andtrailers, including a pivotal scene in the motion pictureAmerican Graffiti.
Later in 1962, the band released an all-instrumental album,Green Onions. Aside from the title track, a "sequel" ("Mo' Onions") and "Behave Yourself", the album consisted of instrumental covers of popular hits.
Booker T. & the M.G.'s continued to issue instrumental singles and albums throughout the 1960s. The group was a successful recording combo in its own right, but most of the work by the musicians in the band during this period was as the core of thede facto house band at Stax Records.[7] Members of Booker T. & the M.G.'s (often, but not always, performing as a unit, and usually supported by a horn section) performed as the studio backing band forOtis Redding,Sam & Dave,Albert King,Johnnie Taylor,Eddie Floyd,the Staple Singers,Wilson Pickett,Delaney & Bonnie and many others in the 1960s.[7]
They played on hundreds of records, including classics like "Walking the Dog", "Hold On, I'm Comin'" (on which the multi-instrumentalist Jones playedtuba over Donald "Duck" Dunn's bass line[citation needed]), "Soul Man", "Who's Making Love", "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)", and "Try a Little Tenderness", among others.[7] Along with their counterparts inDetroit,Motown'sFunk Brothers, as a backing band to numerous hits, they are considered to have originated much of the sound ofsoul music—particularly, in the case of the M.G.'s, Southern soul—in which "the groove" is paramount.
In the mid-1960s, Jones was often away from Memphis while studying music full-time atIndiana University.[7]Stax writer and producerIsaac Hayes usually stepped in when Jones was unavailable for session work, and on several sessions Jones and Hayes played together with one on organ, the other on piano. However, Hayes was never a regular member of the M.G.'s, and Jones played on all the records credited to Booker T. & the M.G.'s, with one exception: the 1965 hit "Boot-Leg", a studio jam with Hayes playing keyboards in Jones's place. According to Cropper, it had been recorded with the intention of releasing it under the name ofthe Mar-Keys (the name, which predated the creation of the MG's, had sometimes been used on singles by the Stax house band). However, as recordings credited to Booker T. & the M.G.'s were meeting with greater commercial success than those credited to the Mar-Keys, the decision was made to credit "Boot-Leg" to Booker T. & the M.G.'s, although Jones did not participate in the recording.
Individual session credits notwithstanding, the Stax house band—Cropper, Jackson, Jones, and Steinberg, along with bassist Dunn (Cropper's bandmate in the Mar-Keys); keyboardistIsaac Hayes; and varioushorn players, most frequentlyFloyd Newman,Wayne Jackson andAndrew Love (the latter two later formed theMemphis Horns)—set a standard for soul music. Whereas the sign outsideDetroit'spop-orientedMotown Records read "Hitsville U.S.A.", the marquee outside of the converted movie theater where Stax was based proclaimed "Soulsville U.S.A."
Booker T. & the M.G.'s consistently issued singles from 1963 to 1965, but only a few made the charts, and none was as successful as "Green Onions". Their second album,Soul Dressing, was released in 1965. Whereas theGreen Onions album contained mostly covers, every composition but one onSoul Dressing was an original. After contributing to that album, Steinberg left the group, and Dunn (who had played on previous Stax sessions) became the group's full-time bassist.
During a tour when the band was in Los Angeles playing in a Stax Revue, an informal jam session with three of the M.G.'s was recorded in Hollywood in 1965, initiated by DJMagnificent Montague who played congas. The resulting track, "Hole in the Wall", was issued by Pure Soul Music in October 1965 credited tothe Packers with writing shared by Montague, Cropper, Jackson and Jones. The track reached number 43 on Billboard, and made the Top 30 on Cash Box. All other songs released by the Packers had no involvement from Booker T. & the M.G.'s.[9]
After a period of commercial decline, Booker T. & the M.G.'s finally returned to the Top 40 with the 1967 instrumental "Hip Hug-Her". It was the first single on which Jones played aHammond B-3 organ, the instrument with which he is most closely associated (he used aHammond M-3 on all of the earlier recordings, including "Green Onions"). The group also had a substantial hit with their cover ofthe Rascals' "Groovin'". Both tracks are included on their albumHip Hug-Her, released in the same year.
In the spring of 1967, they joined a group of Stax artists billed as the "Stax/Volt Revue" on a European tour, in which they performed in their own right and backed the other acts. In June of that year, they appeared at theMonterey Pop Festival, playing their own set and then backingOtis Redding, alongside performers likeJimi Hendrix,Janis Joplin,the Who, andJefferson Airplane. They were invited to perform at theWoodstock Festival in 1969, but drummer Jackson was worried about the helicopter needed to deliver them to the site, and so they decided not to play.
The albumsDoin' Our Thing andSoul Limbo were released in 1968. The track "Soul Limbo", featuring marimba byTerry Manning, was a hit (later used by theBBC as their theme forcricket coverage on both TV and, latterly, radio'sTest Match Special), as was their version of "Hang 'Em High".[7] In 1969, the band scored their second biggest hit with "Time Is Tight",[7] from thesoundtrack to the movieUp Tight!, scored by Jones,[10] which reached No. 6 on the Billboard pop charts.
For the 1969 albumDamifiknow!, the Mar-Keys name was revived. The members of the group were explicitly identified in the album credits as the sextet of Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Booker T. Jones, Al Jackson, and horn players Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson (no relation to Al). The album didn't receive much attention, and the core quartet soon returned to playing and performing as Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
In 1969, Dunn and Jones, in particular, had become admirers ofthe Beatles, especially their work onAbbey Road. The appreciation was mutual, as the Beatles had been musically influenced by the M.G.'s.John Lennon was a Stax fan, who fondly called the group "Book a Table and the Maitre d's" (in 1974, Lennon facetiously credited himself and his studio band as "Dr. Winston and Booker Table and the Maitre d's" on his original R&B-inspired instrumental, "Beef Jerky").Paul McCartney, like Dunn, played bass melodically, without straying from the rhythm or the groove. The Beatles had even floated the possibility of recording their 1966 albumRevolver at Stax, but backed out when fans besieged the Memphis studio.
In 1970, Lennon's wish was granted, in a sense, when Booker T. and the M.G.'s recordedMcLemore Avenue (named for the street where Stax Records was located), on which they performed instrumentalcover versions of thirteen of the songs onAbbey Road, condensing twelve of them into three medleys. The album's front cover is a parody of the front cover ofAbbey Road; the back cover, with the blurred image of a mini-skirted woman at the edge of the photo, also mirrors that ofAbbey Road.
In 1970 Booker T. & the M.G.'s sat in withCreedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) for a jam, and they were the opening act for that band's January 31 performance at the Oakland Coliseum, which was recorded for the CCR albumThe Concert.
In 1971 Booker T. and the M.G.'s released what would be their last Stax single, "Melting Pot", and their last Stax album, also calledMelting Pot.[7] "Melting Pot"'s repetitivegroove-oriented drumming, loping bass line, and tight rhythm guitar made it an underground hit popular in New York Cityblock parties. The song has often been sampled byrappers andtechnoDJs. The full-length album version of the track is over eight minutes long and contains a passage (not included on the single) featuring some particularly powerful flourishes from Jones's Hammond B-3.Melting Pot also includes the tuneful Native American–influenced track "Fuquawi", which was also released on a single, coupled with "Jamaica This Morning".
BeforeMelting Pot was recorded, Jones had already left Stax and moved to California,[7] because he disliked the changes that had occurred under the label's new chairmanAl Bell. Part of the album was recorded atThe Record Plant inNew York City, not theStax Studio, because Jones did not want to record there and instead opted for a different sound, hence the change of studios and cities between MG's gigs. Like Jones, Cropper had also become unhappy with business affairs at Stax and soon left to open his own studio in Memphis.[11] However, the rhythm section of Dunn and Jackson remained on at Stax and didsession and production work. Jackson (who had been inHi Records producerWillie Mitchell's band) played on and wrote many ofAl Green's biggest hits.[7]
Without Jones, the group (billed simply as the MG's) released a "final" single, "Jamaica This Morning", in October 1971. It failed to chart, and the group name was retired for the time being.
In 1973, Dunn and Staxsession guitaristBobby Manuel recruited Hammond B-3 organistCarson Whitsett to be part of a band that was to back Stefan Anderson, a promising new Stax artist. Al Jackson was later brought in. The project did not ultimately yield any results, but the rehearsals were promising, prompting Jackson and Dunn to reform the M.G.'s. This version of the band featured Whitsett in place of Jones, so it was billed as simply "the MG's".[7]
The 1973 album entitledThe MG's, with Manuel and Whitsett replacing Cropper and Jones, was not commercially successful.[7] Whitsett went on to backBobby "Blue" Bland,Little Milton, andKathy Mattea, and his songs were recorded byJohnnie Taylor,Solomon Burke,B. B. King,Etta James,Conway Twitty, andLorrie Morgan. Manuel became a staple of the Memphis music scene, playing with everybody fromAl Green toAlbert King, and later founded HighStacks Records (the name being a tribute to both Stax andHi Records).
After a promising meeting in late September 1975, Jones and Cropper (who were now living in Los Angeles) and Jackson and Dunn (still in Memphis), decided to give each other three months to finish up all of their individual projects. They would then devote three years to what would be renamedBooker T. Jones & the Memphis Group. Nine days later (October 1), Al Jackson, the man Cropper would remember as "the greatest drummer to ever walk the earth", was murdered in his home.
In 1975,Al Bell tasked Stax Producer/MusicianTerry Manning (who had worked on several of the MGs albums) with a project which involved taking songs previously recorded by the classic Booker T. & the M.G.'s lineup of Jones/Cropper/Dunn/Jackson, but which had never been completed or released. Manning found and performed post production in the Stax studios on 12 songs, and the album was released in the UK and France in 1976 asUnion Extended.
The remaining three members and drummerWillie Hall (a session musician who had played on many Stax hits, such asIsaac Hayes's "Theme fromShaft") regrouped under their old name, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and recorded the albumUniversal Language forAsylum Records in 1977.[7] The album did not meet with either commercial or critical success, and the band once again dissolved.[7]
Over the next decade, Cropper, Dunn and Jones remained active, producing, writing, and playing with other artists. All three joinedLevon Helm, formerly the drummer ofthe Band, as part of hisRCO All-Stars in 1977. Also in that year, Cropper and Dunn became part ofthe Blues Brothers band, appearing on the number-one albumBriefcase Full of Blues. Cropper, Dunn and Hall also appeared in the 1980 movieThe Blues Brothers, starringDan Aykroyd andJohn Belushi. Cropper, Dunn and Hall later reprised their roles inBlues Brothers 2000.
In 1980 the hit feature filmThe Blues Brothers featured Cropper, Dunn and Hall as part of the primary band backing the Blues Brothers.
In 1986, former co-owner ofAtlantic RecordsJerry Wexler asked the group to be thehouse band forAtlantic Records' 40th anniversary celebration. The night before the gig, Jones came down with food poisoning, soPaul Shaffer stepped in at the last minute. The earlier rehearsals (with Jones, Cropper, Dunn, and drummerAnton Fig of Shaffer's "World's Most Dangerous Band", featured onLate Night with David Letterman) went so well that the group decided to play some dates together. Over the next few years, they played together occasionally, completing some gigs in the UK in 1990.[7]
In 1992, after Booker T. & the M.G.'s were inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame,Bob Dylan asked Jones, Cropper, and Dunn to serve as the house band (with Fig andJim Keltner on drums) for his "30th Anniversary Concert", commemorating his thirty years in the music business, at which they backed Dylan,Stevie Wonder,Johnny Cash,Eric Clapton, andGeorge Harrison, among others.
At the concert,Neil Young asked the group to back him on his 1993 world tour, and Booker T. & the M.G.'s toured withNeil Young, backing him on his own compositions. The set list often included a cover of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (the original recording by Otis Redding had, of course, featured Booker T. & the M.G.'s).
In 1994, the group recorded its first album in 17 years,That's the Way It Should Be.Steve Jordan was the drummer on most tracks.
In 1995, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened its museum in Cleveland, Ohio, the M.G.'s served as thehouse band for the opening ceremonies, playing behindAretha Franklin,Sam Moore,John Fogerty, andAl Green, as well as performing themselves.
Jones, Dunn, and Al Jackson's cousin, drummer Steve Potts, backedNeil Young on his 2002 albumAre You Passionate?. Cropper, along withIsaac Hayes andSam Moore, welcomedStax presidentJim Stewart into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Cropper and Hayes were later inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame.
Booker T. & the M.G.'s, usually with Steve Potts on drums, still play select dates. They have been called the most influential stylists in modern American music. In early 2008 they backed singerGuy Sebastian on a sold-out tour of Australia.
In 2004,Rolling Stone ranked the group #93 on their list of the100 Greatest Artists of All Time,[12] and in 2007, the group received theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[13] Also in 2004, Eric Clapton featured Jones, Cropper, and Dunn as the house band for the first "Crossroads Guitar Festival" a two-day event held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, featuring outstanding performers in various musical genres who play guitar as their primary instrument. A two-disc DVD of the show was released in the same year.
Jones, in collaboration with the bandDrive-By Truckers, released the albumPotato Hole, featuring Neil Young on guitar, in 2009. He releasedThe Road from Memphis in 2011; the album won a Grammy Award.
On May 13, 2012, Dunn died following two concerts in Tokyo. Since his death, the band has, for the most part, gone their separate ways. Cropper is currently touring withthe Blues Brothers,[14] and Jones is performing as a solo artist as well as releasing new music under his name only.[15]
For many years, Stax publicity releases stated that the initials in the band's name stood for "Memphis Group", not theMG sports car.[16]
Musician and record producerChips Moman, who worked at Stax Records when the band was formed, claimed that the band was named after his sports car, and only after he left the label did Stax's publicity department declare that "M.G." stood for "Memphis Group". Moman had played with Jones and Steinberg in an earlier Stax backing group called the Triumphs, which was also named after hiscar.[17]
Jones, in a 2007 interview onNational Public Radio'sFresh Air with Terry Gross, confirmed Moman's account of the origin of the group's name.[18] Jones has re-confirmed this story on several occasions since, most recently as a guest on theLate Show with David Letterman on May 9, 2012.
Stax historian Rob Bowman has averred that the reason the label obscured the story of the meaning of the nameM.G.'s (and concocted the "Memphis Group" explanation) was to avoid claims of trademark infringement from the manufacturers of the car. In a 2019 interview withThe Guardian, Steve Cropper confirmed the motor car origin and "Memphis Group" explanation, but added 'we were being interviewed and someone asked: "What does MG actually stand for?" Duck Dunn said: "Musical geniuses!"'[19]
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US 200 [20] | US R&B [20] | US Jazz [20] | UK [21] | ||
| 1962 | Green Onions | 33 | — | — | 11 |
| 1965 | Soul Dressing | — | — | — | — |
| 1966 | And Now! | — | 18 | — | — |
| In the Christmas Spirit | — | — | — | — | |
| 1967 | Hip Hug-Her | 35 | 4 | — | — |
| 1968 | Doin' Our Thing | 176 | 17 | — | — |
| Soul Limbo | 167 | 14 | — | — | |
| 1969 | UpTight(soundtrack) | 98 | 7 | — | — |
| The Booker T. Set | 53 | 10 | — | — | |
| 1970 | McLemore Avenue | 107 | 19 | — | 70 |
| 1971 | Melting Pot | 43 | 2 | 5 | — |
| 1977 | Universal Language | — | 59 | — | — |
| 1994 | That's the Way It Should Be | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||
| Year | A-side | B-side | Label | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [20] | US R&B [20] | AUS | CAN | UK [21] | ||||||
| 1962 | "Green Onions" | "Behave Yourself" | Volt 102; Stax 127 | 3 | 1 | 73 | — | — | Green Onions | |
| "Jellybread" | "Aw' Mercy" | Stax 131 | 82 | — | — | — | — | Soul Dressing | ||
| 1963 | "Home Grown" | "Big Train" | Stax 134 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Chinese Checkers" | "Plum Nellie" | Stax 137 | 78 | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Fannie Mae" | "Mo' Onions" | Stax 142 | 97 | — | — | — | — | Green Onions | ||
| 1964 | "Mo' Onions" | "Tic-Tac-Toe" | Stax 142 | 109 | 46 | — | — | — | Soul Dressing | |
| "Soul Dressing" | "MG Party" | Stax 153 | 95 | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Can't Be Still" | "Terrible Thing" | Stax 161 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1965 | "Boot-Leg" | "Outrage" | Stax 169 | 58 | 10 | — | — | — | The Best of Booker T. & the MG's | |
| "Hole in the Wall" (asthe Packers) | "Go 'Head On" (as the Packers) | Pure Soul Music 1107 | 43 | 5 | — | — | — | Hole in the Wall (as the Packers) | ||
| "Be My Lady" | "Red Beans and Rice" | Stax 182 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album track | ||
| 1966 | "My Sweet Potato" | "Booker-Loo" | Stax 196 | 85 | 18 | — | — | — | And Now! | |
| "Jingle Bells" | "Winter Wonderland" | Stax 203 | — | — | — | — | — | In the Christmas Spirit | ||
| 1967 | "Hip Hug-Her" | "Summertime" | Stax 211 | 37 | 6 | — | 38 | 51[A] | Hip Hug-Her | |
| "Groovin'" | "Slim Jenkins' Place" | Stax 224 | 21 (A) 70 (B) | 10 — | — | 2 — | — 58[A] | |||
| "Winter Snow" | "Silver Bells" | Stax 236 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album track | ||
| 1968 | "Soul Limbo" | "Heads or Tails" | Stax STA-0001 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 30 | Soul Limbo | |
| "Hang 'Em High" | "Over Easy" | Stax STA-0013 | 9 | 35 | 98 | 13 | — | |||
| 1969 | "Time Is Tight" | "Johnny, I Love You" | Stax STA-0028 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 4 | Up Tight(soundtrack) | |
| "Mrs. Robinson" | "Soul Clap '69" | Stax STA-0037 | 37 | 35 | 57 | 21 | 35 | The Booker T. Set | ||
| "Slum Baby" | "Meditation" | Stax STA-0049 | 88 | 46 | — | 70 | — | Non-album track | ||
| 1970 | "Something" | "Sunday Sermon" | Stax STA-0073 | 76 | — | — | — | — | McLemore Avenue | |
| 1971 | "Melting Pot" | "Kinda Easy Like" | Stax STA-0082 | 45 | 21 | — | 90 | — | Melting Pot | |
| "Jamaica This Morning" (as the MG's) | "Fuquawi" | Stax STA-0108 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album track | ||
| 1973 | "Sugarcane" (as the MG's) | "Blackside" (as the MG's) | Stax STA-0169 | — | 67 | — | — | — | The MG's | |
| 1974 | "Neckbone" (as the MG's) | "Breezy" (as the MG's) | Stax STA-0200 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1977 | "Sticky Stuff" | "Tie Stick" | Asylum E-45392 | — | 68 | — | — | — | Universal Language | |
| "Grab Bag" | "Reincarnation" | Asylum E-45424 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1979 | "Green Onions" | "Boot-Leg" | Atlantic (UK) K-10109 | — | — | — | — | 7 | The Best of Booker T. & the MG's | |
| 1994 | "Cruisin'" | "Just My Imagination" | Columbia 38-77526 | — | — | — | — | — | That's the Way It Should Be | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||
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