Bloggerhythms

This CD's title couldn't be clearer. Rhino's  The Very Best of Booker T. & The MG's  has all of the hits and a few other gems released by Stax's famous house band that they recorded under their own name. There are many MGs compilations out there in musicland but this single CD with sixteen tracks is the one to get if you don't need a multi-disc collection. It has superlative sound and two non-LP singles - "Booker-Loo" and "Slum Baby," - that don't even appear on Fantasy Records' three disc set. The Very Best of Booker T. & The MG's covers the years 1962 to 1971, and as the back jewel box insert says, only "original singles masters were used on this collection." The CD includes detailed liner notes with a history of the quartet. For each track you'll learn who played what, the release date and chart positions. You really can't ask for more. The big hits included here are...

In 1970, Booker T. & The MGs, the famous quartet and house band for Stax Records re-recorded The Beatles' Abbey Road almost in its entirety. They also copied the original's iconic album cover and even named the platter, McLemore Avenue , after the street that was home to their recording studio, just like the Beatles did for their classic. This wasn't just a group trying to cash in on a good thing. The MGs were virtuosos paying tribute to the world's most famous rock band and one of their acknowledged masterworks. Booker T. Jones is on record as saying he was so enamored of the Fabs’ 1969 album that this was his way of saying thanks. Just like The Beatles did on Abbey Road , The MGs assembled the songs on McLemore Avenue into medleys. Track one is more than a fifteen minute cruise through the three songs that made up Paul McCartney's "Golden Slumbers" medley with George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun" and John Lennon's ...