The original members of the group were Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. (drums).

In the 1960s, as members of the Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, and Albert King.

's formed as the house band of Stax Records, providing backing music for numerous singers, including Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding.

[6] In summer 1962, 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, 20-year-old guitarist Steve Cropper, and two seasoned players, bassist Lewie Steinberg and drummer Al Jackson Jr. (the latter making his debut with the company) were in the Memphis studio to back the former Sun Records star Billy Lee Riley.

[7] Along with their counterparts in Detroit, Motown's Funk Brothers, as a backing band to numerous hits, they are considered to have originated much of the sound of soul music—particularly, in the case of the M.G.

Individual session credits notwithstanding, the Stax house band—Cropper, Jackson, Jones, and Steinberg, along with bassist Dunn (Cropper's bandmate in the Mar-Keys); keyboardist Isaac Hayes; and various horn players, most frequently Floyd Newman, Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love (the latter two later formed the Memphis Horns)—set a standard for soul music.

Whereas the sign outside Detroit's pop-oriented Motown Records read "Hitsville U.S.A.", the marquee outside of the converted movie theater where Stax was based proclaimed "Soulsville U.S.A." Booker T. & the M.G.

The resulting track, "Hole in the Wall", was issued by Pure Soul Music in October 1965 credited to the Packers with writing shared by Montague, Cropper, Jackson and Jones.

In June of that year, they appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival, playing their own set and then backing Otis Redding, alongside performers like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, and Jefferson Airplane.

They were invited to perform at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, but drummer Jackson was worried about the helicopter needed to deliver them to the site, and so they decided not to play.

The track "Soul Limbo", featuring marimba by Terry Manning, was a hit (later used by the BBC as their theme for cricket coverage on both TV and, latterly, radio's Test Match Special), as was their version of "Hang 'Em High".

[7] "Melting Pot"'s repetitive groove-oriented drumming, loping bass line, and tight rhythm guitar made it an underground hit popular in New York City block parties.

The full-length album version of the track is over eight minutes long and contains a passage (not included on the single) featuring some particularly powerful flourishes from Jones's Hammond B-3.

Before Melting Pot was recorded, Jones had already left Stax and moved to California,[7] because he disliked the changes that had occurred under the label's new chairman Al Bell.

Jackson (who had been in Hi Records producer Willie Mitchell's band) played on and wrote many of Al Green's biggest hits.

[7] Whitsett went on to back Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton, and Kathy Mattea, and his songs were recorded by Johnnie Taylor, Solomon Burke, B.

After a promising meeting in late September 1975, Jones and Cropper (who were now living in Los Angeles) and Jackson and Dunn (still in Memphis), decided to give each other three months to finish up all of their individual projects.

Nine days later (October 1), Al Jackson, the man Cropper would remember as "the greatest drummer to ever walk the earth", was murdered in his home.

In 1975, Al Bell tasked Stax Producer/Musician Terry Manning (who had worked on several of the MGs albums) with a project which involved taking songs previously recorded by the classic Booker T. & the M.G.

Manning found and performed post production in the Stax studios on 12 songs, and the album was released in the UK and France in 1976 as Union Extended.

The remaining three members and drummer Willie Hall (a session musician who had played on many Stax hits, such as Isaac Hayes's "Theme from Shaft") regrouped under their old name, Booker T. & the M.G.

The earlier rehearsals (with Jones, Cropper, Dunn, and drummer Anton Fig of Shaffer's "World's Most Dangerous Band", featured on Late Night with David Letterman) went so well that the group decided to play some dates together.

's were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bob Dylan asked Jones, Cropper, and Dunn to serve as the house band (with Fig and Jim Keltner on drums) for his "30th Anniversary Concert", commemorating his thirty years in the music business, at which they backed Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, and George Harrison, among others.

The set list often included a cover of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (the original recording by Otis Redding had, of course, featured Booker T. & the M.G.'s).

's served as the house band for the opening ceremonies, playing behind Aretha Franklin, Sam Moore, John Fogerty, and Al Green, as well as performing themselves.

Jones, Dunn, and Al Jackson's cousin, drummer Steve Potts, backed Neil Young on his 2002 album Are You Passionate?.

Cropper, along with Isaac Hayes and Sam Moore, welcomed Stax president Jim Stewart into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Jones, in collaboration with the band Drive-By Truckers, released the album Potato Hole, featuring Neil Young on guitar, in 2009.

[15] For many years, Stax publicity releases stated that the initials in the band's name stood for "Memphis Group", not the MG sports car.

[17] Jones, in a 2007 interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, confirmed Moman's account of the origin of the group's name.