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Booker T. & The M.G.'s
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Miami Vice Performer
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Active
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1962-1977
1994-present |
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Members
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Booker T. Jones (organ/piano, born 1944)
Steve Cropper (guitar, born 1941) Donald "Duck" Dunn (bass, 1941-2012) Steve Potts (drums) |
Booker T. & The M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B band whose song "Green Onions" appeared in the Miami Vice episode "Nobody Lives Forever".
Career[]
Booker T. & The M.G.'s were formed in Memphis, Tennessee as the house band of the Stax Records label, playing on recordings by Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Johnnie Taylor, and others. The song "Green Onions" came about during a break in a recording session, when the head of Stax Records liked a jam session the group was having and recorded it. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B charts in 1962. After a period of no success, in 1967 the band was invited to the Monterey Pop Festival, playing alongside Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane. The band returned to the Top 10 in 1968 with the instrumental "Hang 'em High" and again in 1969 with "Time Is Tight". That same year the group was invited to play Woodstock, but declined when then-member Al Jackson had a fear of flying.
In the 1970s the band did not have any singles or albums reach the Top 40 and the group disbanded. In 1980 two members (Dunn and Cropper) were used as the backing band for The Blues Brothers in the movie of the same name, 1992 brought their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, served for house band for the Hall's opening in 1995. In 2004 the band was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Currently the group occasionally tours and records albums, however Dunn's death in May, 2012 ended any further reunions of the original band.