I took the liberty of looking over the rest of the top 500 yesterday. All I can say is that it does have some '60s songs, but it's the usual suspects rather than the best songs. The remainder is random stuff from other decades, a smattering of which might be deserving of a spot on the 500 "best" songs ever. I haven't heard everything, so that might be advisable before giving final opinions ... LOL
#418 Booker T. and the MGs, 'Green Onions' 1962 WRITER(S):Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, Lewie Steinberg, Steve Cropper The Stax house band had never considered making its own hits until it cooked up this simmering jam based around an organ line 17-year-old Booker T. Jones had written, “trying to emulate Ray Charles.” As guitarist Steve Cropper recalled, “I said, ‘****, this is the best damn instrumental I’ve heard since I don’t know when.'” As for the onions, Cropper explained that “we were trying to think of something that was as funky as possible.” Its original title was “Funky Onions,” but, according to Jones, “It sounded like a cuss word. So we retitled it ‘Green Onions.'”
Green Onions (Booker T & the MG's) One of the best and catchiest instrumentals of the 60's. A lot of instrumentals are boring after a bit, but this one is always fun to hear. Top 500 material for sure! 4/5 My Current top 50 List: 1. Rosalita-Bruce Springsteen 2. Help-Beatles 3. California Dreamin-Mama's & Papa's 4. Loser-Beck 5. House Of The Rising Sun-The Animals 6. White Rabbit-Jefferson Airplane 7. Criminal-Fiona Apple 8. Don't Fear The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult 9. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 10. Buddy Holly-Weezer 11. Cannonball-Breeders 12. Under Pressure-Queen & David Bowie 13. Help Me-Joni Mitchell 14. Get Lucky-Daft Punk ft. Pharell Williams 15. Summertime Blues-Eddie Cochran 16. Green Onions-Booker T & the MG's 17. Summertime Sadness-Lana Del Rey 18. I Can't Help Myself-Four Tops 19. Move On Up-Curtis Mayfield 20. Oy Como Va-Santana 21. Baby Love - Supremes 22. Without You - Nilsson 23. Rapper's Delight-Sugarhill Gang 24. Fade Into You-Mazzy Star 25. Come As You Are-Nirvana 26. LImelight-Rush 27. Passionate Kisses-Lucinda Williams 28. Our Lips Are Sealed-Go Go's 29. Crying-Roy Orbison 30. Midnight Train To Georgia-Gladys Knight & Pips 31. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker-Ramones 32. Fantasy-Mariah Carey 33. If I Ain't Got You-Alicia Keys 34. Sunday Morning Coming Down-Kris Krisofferson 35. Cross Road Blues-Robert Johnson 36. Solsbury Hill-Peter Gabriel 37. The House That Built Me-Miranda Lambert 38. They Reminisce Over You-Pete Rock & CL Smooth 39. Goodbye Earl-The Chicks 40. Boom Boom-John Lee Hooker 41. Pancho And Lefty-Townes Van Zandt 42. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper 43. Africa-Toto 44. Into The Mystic-Van Morrison 45. Mannish Boy -Muddy Waters 46. So What-Miles Davis 47. West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys) 48. Cosmic Dancer-T Rex 49. Powderfinger-Neil Young 50. Stand By Your Man-Tammy Wynette So long Bon Jovi!
Bit worried about Terrapin Station. He's not been on the forum for ten days or so which isn't like him at all.
This is funky stuff indeed! While it might seem quite mellow nowadays, Green Onions still sounds pretty fresh after all these years. Duck Dunn's bass playing is funky! He gives the song a great groove. The organ might appear a bit simplistic but it's hitting all the right notes. The whole song sounds uncluttered, there's enough air to make it breathe and let all the instruments shine individually. Yep, I still like this one! Certainly liking it enough to have it make my personal top 10. 1. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up 2. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 3. Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls 4. Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues 5. Daft Punk - Get Lucky 6. Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 7. Motörhead - Ace Of Spades 8. Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker 9. Booker T. & The MG's - Green Onions 10. Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure Miles Davis is bumped out of this list. He's probably shrugging it off, "So what?"
Green Onions is wonderful, one of those things that's just right from start to finish. Booker and the guys did lots of other fine work, both on their own and as accompanists to singers. But this endures and totally deserves its place here. Not surprisingly, they followed it with a bunch of stuff that sounded a lot like it til they finally came up with equally strong but different stuff like Time is Tight. My favorite session band of all time, even though they lacked the ability to do absolutely everything that some others had or at least came closer to.
I'm not too fussed over Green Onions. I can think of a number of instrumentals from the '60s that I'd rather listen to, such as Telstar, Out of Limits, even No Matter What Shape. Surely Soul Coaxin' by Raymond Lefevre blows away Green Onions? For me it certainly does ...
"Green Onions" Though it's one of the quintessential singles on the Atlantic-era Stax label, the single was originally released on the affiliated Volt label (Volt 102, the third single on the label). The Volt 45 was not distributed by Atlantic; it may have been meant only for Memphis, as it has matrix numbers in the Stax-Volt internal series (1063 and 1064) rather than as part of the Atlantic-Atco series. When the single was re-assigned to Stax 127, the matrix numbers were changed to 6295 and 6296. The Volt release is rare. Yeah, it looks weird on that label. "Green Onions" remained a steady seller throughout the 1960s. When Stax became a quasi-independent label in 1968, the vast majority of its previously released masters became property of Atlantic. This single was still in print then, and it was re-pressed on the new green Stax label that was only used for reissues. My first copy of "Green Onions" was on that label before I dug up an original Stax 127. When the song was recorded, the original thought was that the other side, "Behave Yourself," was the potential hit. But after listening to a pre-release acetate, Steve Cropper became convinced that the then-untitled jam was the real hit. After he took it to a Memphis radio station and heard the reaction to what became "Green Onions," he knew. Apropos of nothing: Many years after I first heard the song, I was reminded of it by, of all things, the Stan Freberg parody "Christmas Dragnet." There's a running gag in the skit in which they say, "most people call them green onions but they're really scallions." Then the side conversation is entwined with the business of the day, when the "Wednesday" (Joe Friday) character tells his partner that the perp "don't believe in scallions. I mean Santa Claus." The green onions vs. scallions bit shows up again later in the record. --- I first heard of Booker T. and the MG's in 1973, when I first started reading about the history of rock in addition to listening to the music. What I didn't know at the time was that I was already familiar with two of their hits because I heard them on the radio in my earliest 1968-69 easy-listening era. It was still a while longer until I learned the titles of these two mysterious instrumentals -- "Time Is Tight" and "Hang 'Em High." I'm not sure when I first heard "Green Onions." I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the sixties. I probably heard it in 1973 on a WFIL "Million Dollar Weekend," but perhaps not. I know it was used in American Graffiti, but I don't think I saw the movie until it was on cable TV in 1976 or so, and I know I didn't have the soundtrack until a bit later. In 1974, I spent several days in the High Point, North Carolina area for an uncle's funeral. While I was there, I somehow became aware of a local oldies radio station that had put together a poster of what it called the 1000 Greatest Hits of All Time 1955-1972. I got a copy of the poster at a local record store when I was there, and for the next four years or so, I used it as a collecting guide. My goal was to get the 45s of all 1,000 songs on that list. (I finally finished the list in the late 1980s! The last missing single was "Baby Workout" by Jackie Wilson.) One of the singles on that list was "Green Onions," and when I got the Stax 45 is probably when I learned its name. What a great groove it has! I love playing air organ along with it, not to mention those guitar bursts. It's so ominpresent that it's easy to take for granted. For years, I ignored or forgot about Booker T. and the MG's when compiling volumes of A Few of My Favorite Things. Both "Time Is Tight" and "Hang 'Em High" are finally included, and "Green Onions" will be coming soon to a volume near me. My verdict: Not on a volume of A Few of My Favorite Things, but definitely will include later.
I'm still in shock about Mariah Carey popping up a couple of songs ago. I thought Bon Jovi would be the absolute rock bottom but how wrong I was. I'm almost excited to find out what fresh horrors await us. Anyway... #418 Booker T. and the MGs - 'Green Onions' Green Onions is the essence of cool so no surprise to see it here. Super simple and fun but definitely overplayed which makes it harder to enjoy. It works far better as a party track than played over headphones so I never really seek it out. I own a terrible Booker T LP that never gets played (Soul Limbo) and don't count myself as a fan, in general. Deserves a spot here though. 1. Help! - The Beatles 2. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane 3. Crying - Roy Orbison 4. Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield 5. House of the Rising Sun - The Animals 6. California Dreamin - The Mamas and the Papas 7. Rosalita - Bruce Springsteen 8. Under Pressure - Queen/Bowie 9. Into The Mystic - Van Morrison 10. Mannish Boy - Muddy Waters Last place: Fantasy - Mariah Carey
Booker T. and the MGs - 'Green Onions' I love those late 50s and early 60s instrumentals and "Green Onions" is definitely up there with the best of them.
“Green Onions” – One of those songs that virtually everyone has heard, even if they don’t know they’ve heard it. I can listen to Booker T. jams all day long. They’re uniformly excellent and lots of fun. This one is iconic and certainly deserves its place on the RS list, but it doesn’t quite rate high enough to make mine. 5/5 Top 10: 1. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) – Bruce Springsteen 2. Rapper’s Delight – Sugar Hill Gang 3. Help Me – Joni Mitchell 4. Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight & The Pips 5. Cannonball - Breeders 6. The House Of The Rising Sun - Animals 7. Our Lips Are Sealed – Go-Go’s 8. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 9. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane 10. Limelight – Rush
Green Onions Great instrumental, fantastic groove. Duck Dunn is an All-Star here, for sure. Is it a reasonable choice for Top 500 of All Time? I say yes! I rank it #29 on my list so far. 1. John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom 2. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper 3. Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy 4. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up 5. Queen + David Bowie – Under Pressure 6. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia 7. Rush - Limelight 8. Neil Young - Powderfinger 9. Go-Gos - Our Lips Are Sealed 10. Santana - Oye Cómo Va 11. The Smiths – How Soon is Now? 12. Mötorhead – Ace of Spades 13. Carly Simon - You're So Vain 14. Joni Mitchell - Help Me 15. The Animals - The House of the Rising Sun 16. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 17. Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle 18. Nirvana - Come As You Are 19. The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin 20. Lucinda Williams – Passionate Kisses 21. Roy Orbison – Crying 22. The Four Tops – I Can’t Help Myself 23. Pixies - Where is My Mind? 24. Beatles – Help! 25. Ramones – Sheena is a Punk Rocker 26. Van Morrison - Into the Mystic 27. Fiona Apple - Criminal 28. Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 29. Booker T. and the MGs – Green Onions 30. Tammy Wynette - Stand by Your Man
I looked a little ahead and I think there's about to be a six-song run of interesting songs (although 1-2 will likely be controversial).
417 . Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, 'Uptown Funk' 2015 WRITER(S):Charles Wilson, Devon Gallaspy, Jeff Bhasker, Lonnie Simmons, Nicholaus Williams, Peter Hernandez, Philip Lawrence, Robert Wilson, Ronnie Wilson, Rudolph Taylor The breezy boogie vibes of “Uptown Funk” didn’t come easy. A rehearsal jam at Mars’ Los Angeles studio led to several arduous sessions of trial and error. Mars lifted the “Don’t believe me, just watch” hook from rapper Trinidad James’ hit “All Gold Everything.” Ronson paid homage to Kool and the Gang by using an all-horns chorus featuring Antibalas and the Dap-Kings; he also added a crucial guitar part, while producer Jeff Bhasker contributed synths. After the song became a huge cross-genre hit, its knowing riff on Eighties funk styles also inspired several lawsuits — proof that success has many fathers.
Uptown Funk (Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars) I think Bruno Mars is quite talented. When "Locked Out Of Heaven" turns up on this countdown (I assume it will) it will rate highly for me. But "Uptown Funk" is not top 500 for me. It cracks me up that 10 people are credited with writing this song. Really? And I don't even know why this is Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars and not the other way around. It is OK and better than some other stuff that has turned up, but just misses my top 50 so far. RATING: 3/5 My Current top 50 List: 1. Rosalita-Bruce Springsteen 2. Help-Beatles 3. California Dreamin-Mama's & Papa's 4. Loser-Beck 5. House Of The Rising Sun-The Animals 6. White Rabbit-Jefferson Airplane 7. Criminal-Fiona Apple 8. Don't Fear The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult 9. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 10. Buddy Holly-Weezer 11. Cannonball-Breeders 12. Under Pressure-Queen & David Bowie 13. Help Me-Joni Mitchell 14. Get Lucky-Daft Punk ft. Pharell Williams 15. Summertime Blues-Eddie Cochran 16. Green Onions-Booker T & the MG's 17. Summertime Sadness-Lana Del Rey 18. I Can't Help Myself-Four Tops 19. Move On Up-Curtis Mayfield 20. Oy Como Va-Santana 21. Baby Love - Supremes 22. Without You - Nilsson 23. Rapper's Delight-Sugarhill Gang 24. Fade Into You-Mazzy Star 25. Come As You Are-Nirvana 26. LImelight-Rush 27. Passionate Kisses-Lucinda Williams 28. Our Lips Are Sealed-Go Go's 29. Crying-Roy Orbison 30. Midnight Train To Georgia-Gladys Knight & Pips 31. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker-Ramones 32. Fantasy-Mariah Carey 33. If I Ain't Got You-Alicia Keys 34. Sunday Morning Coming Down-Kris Krisofferson 35. Cross Road Blues-Robert Johnson 36. Solsbury Hill-Peter Gabriel 37. The House That Built Me-Miranda Lambert 38. They Reminisce Over You-Pete Rock & CL Smooth 39. Goodbye Earl-The Chicks 40. Boom Boom-John Lee Hooker 41. Pancho And Lefty-Townes Van Zandt 42. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper 43. Africa-Toto 44. Into The Mystic-Van Morrison 45. Mannish Boy -Muddy Waters 46. So What-Miles Davis 47. West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys) 48. Cosmic Dancer-T Rex 49. Powderfinger-Neil Young 50. Stand By Your Man-Tammy Wynette
“Uptown Funk” – I must be an easy target for more “recent” songs that have a retro sound. Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” spent some time on my list (OK, it’s not that recent), and “Uptown Funk” creeps in for what will likely be a short, but well-deserved stay. It’s a fantastic song, and one that I actively searched for on the dial when it was charting, as it was such a refreshing change from the other vapid hits of the moment. Bruno Mars is one of the few current artists that seems intent on blazing a trail that isn’t strictly beholden to the current fashion. 5/5 Top 10: 1. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) – Bruce Springsteen 2. Rapper’s Delight – Sugar Hill Gang 3. Help Me – Joni Mitchell 4. Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight & The Pips 5. Cannonball - Breeders 6. The House Of The Rising Sun - Animals 7. Our Lips Are Sealed – Go-Go’s 8. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 9. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane 10. Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars
