“Green Onions” is probably the single best known instrumental of the rock era, and routinely appears on lists of the “the greatest songs of all time”. It was originally released as the B-side of “Behave Yourself” in May of 1962, but when its popularity became apparent, the single was re-released with its A and B sides flipped. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, but its influence goes way beyond that.
“Green Onions” was composed by the members of Booker T. and MGs (Booker T. Jones, Steve “The Colonel” Cropper, Lewie Steinberg and Al Jackson, jnr. Originally a group of session musicians at Stax Records, they metamorphosed into a successful recording act in their own right, but never had another single as successful as “Green Onions”.
