A No. 1 R&B hit which also reached No. 3 on the pop charts in an era of hit instrumentals, “Green Onions” embodied a simple but memorable 12-bar blues groove laid down by session musicians Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Lewie Steinberg, and Al Jackson at the Stax studio in Memphis. Neither the tune nor the band had a name when they recorded it; various stories circulate but Jones has said that bassist Steinberg suggested “Funky Onions.” When the 45 came out on Stax’s Volt subsidiary and subsequently on the hit Stax re-pressing, it was “Green Onions” by Booker T. & the MG’s.
