“Green Onions” is an instrumental composition recorded in 1962 by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Described as “one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever” and as one of “the most popular R&B instrumentals of its era”, it utilizes a twelve-bar blues progression and features a rippling Hammond M3 organ line played by frontman Booker T. Jones, who wrote it when he was 17. However, the actual recording was largely improvised in the studio. The track was originally issued on the Volt label (a subsidiary of Stax Records) as the B-side of “Behave Yourself” on Volt 102; it was quickly reissued in August 1962 as the A-side of Stax 127, and it also appeared on the album of the same name that same year. The organ sound of the song became a feature of the “Memphis soul sound”.
Tracklisting
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| A1 | Green Onions |
| A2 | Rinky-Dink |
| A3 | I Got A Woman |
| A4 | Mo’ Onions |
| A5 | Twist And Shout |
| A6 | Behave Yourself |
| B1 | Stranger On The Shore |
| B2 | Lonely Avenue |
| B3 | One Who Really Loves You |
| B4 | I Can’t Sit Down |
| B5 | A Woman, A Lover, A Friend |
| B6 | Comin’ Home Baby |
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Release Images
Release Information
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia URL | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Onions |
| Format | 1× Vinyl (180 Gram) LP, Album, Reissue |
| Label | DOL |
| Catalog Number | DOL1517H |
| Discogs URL | Booker T & The MG’s - Green Onions |