Booker T & The MGs – Green Onions CD (Hallmark)

The debut album from Booker T & The MGs and only the fourth album ever released by the legendary Stax label (the previous three had all appeared on the Atlantic label as part of their deal, so technically this is the first proper Stax album too), Green Onions is little short of a tour de force. Whilst many albums from fifty years ago now sound dated and stuck in the decade from which they originate, Green Onions is one of the true exceptions. Led by Booker T Jones on the keyboards, the sound is rounded out by Lewis Steinberg on bass, Steve Cropper on guitar and Al Jackson Jr on drums. With Donald Duck Dunn later replacing Steinberg, The MGs would become the house band for Stax, as important to the label as The Funk Brothers were to Motown, but the difference was that the MGs got their own recording deal, with Green Onions the glorious result.