Big Joe Turner: Shake, Rattle & Roll - 1950's
Master 'shout blues' artist Big Joe Turner marks another high point of his career here with "Shake, Rattle & Roll."
Although Bill Haley's later sanitized version became a top rock-n-roller hit, it's said many folks sought out Turner's version instead.
A pivotal figure in popularizing blues, jazz, classic R&B, and rock and roll, Turner's career lasted from the 1920's busking on the streets of Kansas City through the 1980's at the most lauded jazz festivals in America and Europe.
Booker T. & The MG's: Green Onions - 1960's
Green Onions is the debut album by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, released on Stax Records in October of 1962. It reached number 33 on the Pop Albums chart in the month of its release. The title single was a huge hit worldwide which has been covered by dozens of artists, including The Blues Brothers (featuring guitarist Steve Cropper), The Ventures, Al Kooper, The Shadows, Mongo Santamaría, Roy Buchanan (also featuring Steve Cropper and Jan Hammer), Count Basie and many others.
Three previous Stax LPs - two by Mar-Keys, one by Carla Thomas - had been issued on Atlantic Records. Green Onions was the first album released on the Stax label proper. It was also Stax's first charting album, peaking at number 33 on the Billboard 200. The album features only instrumental songs and features Steve Cropper playing a Fender Telecaster.
Booker T. & The MG's: Booker-Loo - 1968
In 1967 Booker T. & The M.G.'s returned to the top 40 with the instrumental “Hip Hug-Her”. Surprisingly, “Hip Hug-Her” was the first single released with Jones on a Hammond B-3 organ, the instrument he is most known for playing (he played a Hammond M-3 on all of the earlier recordings, including "Green Onions"). They also had a substantial hit with their cover of The Rascals' “Groovin'”.
Also in 1967, they joined the now famed Stax European tour. Dubbed “Hit the Road, Stax!”, they performed and backed up the label's stars. In June of that year, they, along with Otis Redding, appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival, alongside performers like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Jefferson Airplane. They were also later invited to play Woodstock, but drummer Al Jackson, Jr. was worried about the helicopter needed to deliver them to the site, and so they decided not to play.
Booker T. & The MG's: Time is Tight - 1970
"Time Is Tight," a Top 10 hit single and signature song for southern soul band Booker T. & the MG's is from a soundtrack album for the film Up Tight.
The album charted at number 98 on the Billboard 200 album chart and number 7 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart.
Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B band that was influential in shaping the sound of southern soul and Memphis soul. Original members of the group were Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson, Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. They also released instrumental records under their own name, such as the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". In 1965, Steinberg was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn. As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of their era. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
Booker T. & The MG's: Boot-Leg - 1960's
Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B band that was influential in shaping the sound of southern soul and Memphis soul. Original members of the group were Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson, Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. They also released instrumental records under their own name, such as the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". In 1965, Steinberg was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn. As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of their era. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
Having two white members (Cropper and Dunn), Booker T. & the M.G.'s was one of the first racially integrated rock groups, at a time when soul music, and the Memphis music scene in particular, were generally considered the preserve of black culture.
Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs & The Mar-Keys - 1967
Otis Redding was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul music and rhythm and blues (R&B), and one of the greatest singers in popular music. His open-throated singing was an influence on other soul singers of the 1960s, and he helped to craft the lean and powerful style of R&B that formed the basis of the Stax Sound. After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", which became a number-one record on both the pop and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash.
Redding was born and raised in Georgia. At age 15, he left school to support his family by working with Little Richard's backing band, The Upsetters, and by playing talent shows for prize money. In 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkins's band, The Pinetoppers, and toured the Southern United States while serving as driver and musician. An unscheduled appearance on a session led to a turning point in his career. He signed a contract with Stax Records and released his debut album, Pain in My Heart, in 1964. This album produced his first Stax single, "These Arms of Mine".
