Described as "one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever"[1] and as one of "the most popular R&B instrumentals of its era",[2] it utilizes a twelve-bar blues progression and features a rippling Hammond M3 organ line played by frontman Booker T. Jones, who wrote it when he was 17.

[5] Booker T. Jones was the keyboard player for the house band of Stax Records with Al Jackson on drums, Lewie Steinberg on bass, and Steve Cropper on guitar.

They started jamming in the studio one Sunday when a recording session with another singer, Billy Lee Riley, failed to take place.

He then took the record to a DJ on the Memphis station WLOK, who played "Green Onions" on air.

1 on the R&B singles chart, for four non-consecutive weeks, an unusual occurrence in that it fell in and out of top spot three times.

[20] In 1969, "Green Onions" was covered by Dick Hyman on his album The Age of Electronicus; his version peaked at No.

[21] During the 1968 jam concerts at the Fillmore West in San Francisco that produced The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, guitarist Mike Bloomfield and organist Al Kooper performed a jam of "Green Onions" that was included on the album.

[24] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers occasionally played it in concert, and a 1997 performance recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco was released on the 2009 album The Live Anthology.

[13] Sonny Boy Williamson's 1963 recording "Help Me" was based on "Green Onions" and features Willie Dixon performing an upright bass riff very similar to the riff in "Green Onions" performed by Lewie Steinberg.

[30] Larkin stated the song was "an incredible, unrepeatable piece of music, copied by millions but never remotely challenged".