Green Onions tops Memphis soul list to mark city’s 200th birthday

Booker T. & The Mg’s’ Green Onions has been voted the ultimate Memphis soul track in a new global poll to mark the Tennessee city’s 200th birthday.
In late May (19), the Stax Museum in Memphis launched a contest asking music fans around the world to pick their favourite tunes from the city’s soul heyday, between 1957 and 1975, and the results are in.
Booker T’s 1962 instrumental tops the list, ahead of David Porter and Isaac Hayes’ Hold On, I’m Comin’, which was a hit for Sam & Dave, and Let’s Stay Together by Al Green.
Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay and Try a Little Tenderness round out the top five, while Sam & Dave’s Soul Man, Isaac Hayes’ Theme from Shaft, Love and Happiness by Al Green, In the Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett, and Ann Peebles’ I Can’t Stand the Rain complete the top 10.
All the tracks were recorded in Memphis, Tennessee at the height of the southern soul explosion.
Seven of the top 10 tracks were recorded at Stax.