In addition to being a tasty addition to a salad or a baked potato,
Green Onions is amongst the most recognizable
instrumentals ever written. Oh, the title might not ring a bell for you, but listen,
you've heard this song. You've heard it in the background, setting the scene in movies, on TV shows, in commercials and movie trailers. So familiar is the laid-back, funky tune that people who hear it instantly shuffle it to the comfort zone of their brain without ever stopping to note that that's an instrumental -- a wordless composition still capable of appealing to us as a plain ol'
rock 'n roll song.
For a wordless composition, this song manages to capture a neat set of vibes and encapsulate a sense of sound. The mix of
electric organ and
electric guitar give it a distinct 70s feel, despite its dating to 1962, when it was recorded by the then-newly-formed
Booker T. & the M.G.s. The genres compacted into this little slice of music
heaven are equally remarkable. It's a bit jazzy, and a bit bluesy, with a blues beat, basic blues
bassline, and a classically bluesy I-bIII-IV (the "borrowed bIII" progression) on the keys. But the guitar parts
rock, and convey hints of
rockabilly. The song is in a sense endless, as it goes out in a fade, a choice which suggests that had the
volume not dwindled down to zero, well you could've just kept listening to the song forever.