With apologies to groups like The Meters, Bar-Kays, and Average White Band, when it comes to all-time great instrumental R&B bands, for most folks Booker T. & the MGs represent the gold standard. And with good reasonor, actually reasons! First of all, as the house band of the hallowed Stax label, The MGs pretty much invented the sound of Southern soul, playing on records by everybody from Otis Redding to Wilson Pickett to Carla Thomas. Second, on their own as Booker T & the MGs, they came up with some of the most indelible instrumental jams of all time, includingbut by no means limited to!Green Onions. And, third, each member of the band was an absolute monster on their instrument, to this day revered and copied by untold numbers of musicians. Indeed, by the time the mid 60s rolled around, bands on both sides of the Atlantic wanted to sound like Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr, and Lewie Steinberg (replaced about halfway through this collection by the great Donald Duck Dunn). And what was that sound? Well, a typical MGs tune started from the bottom-up, resting on the rock-solid drumbeat of Jackson and the in-the-pocket bass work of Steinberg and, later, Dunn, over which keyboardist Jones and guitarist Cropper traded slinky and/or stinging licks. But these cats werent just riff-happy groove masters; Jones basically codified the classic Hammond organ sound and Croppers guitar tone remains the Holy Grail of anyone whos ever picked up a Fender Telecaster. Together, they recorded 49 single sides for Stax under the name of Booker T. & the MGs, and youll find the first 29 (yes, 29!) of em right here, released on a single CD or double-LP pressed in red vinyl. As with all of our singles collections, we have very carefully vetted these songs to make sure they are the correct mono single versions, with mastering by Dan Hersch at d2 Mastering, and tape research and sourcing by Mike Johnson and Aaron Kannowski with help from Bill Inglot. Ed Osborne has contributed detailed notes and discographical information, too, and the sets produced by Real Gones own Gordon Anderson. As for the music, it pretty much speaks for itself: 29 songs, 15 of which reached the charts, including, along with Green Onions, such classics as Boot-Leg, Hip Hug-Her, and My Sweet Potato. Get ready to get into the groove and stay there for a nice, long while!