Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an
instrumental R&B/
funk band that was influential in shaping the sound of
Southern soul and
Memphis soul. The 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 Thomas,
Rufus Thomas,
Johnnie Taylor and
Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, of which the best known is the 1962 hit single "
Green Onions". As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s.