The Benz marketing guys could not have picked a Funkier tune for the new TV ad..
Booker T and the MG's..

Excellent !!!

call me a rebel, but I prefer the Roy Buchanan version.

Roy plays a great guitar. but I am sure the ad guys were looking for the '60s Stax Studio sound, which the MG's { Memphis Group] were the originators of.
Cropper, Dunn, Jones , and Jackson were definately the top studio cats of that day......
Very fitting.

Roy rocked that one! I bought a couple of his albums back in the eighties and after his death I bought the CD anthology. His version of 'I'm a Ram' cooks, too. He sure lead a troubled life.

If you're into Ray Buchanan make sure you check out Danny Gatton. Stupifying guitar player who shared Ray's passion for teles and unfortunately met the same fate (his own hand). HAd a few solo records, one on blue note and one with Joey DeFrancesco, a nice current b3 player who can tear it up.

There's Lonnie Smith and Dr. Lonnie Smith, both b3 guys, both real nasty players. I'm almost sure they're not the same guy.

Been listening to Walter Wanderley, who's like the Brazillian Jimmy Smith. He's on tons of latin stuff (Astrud Gilberto's "Goodbye Sadness" has a great solo from him and is one to hunt down.

I caught a guitarist on XM last week that murdered me. Had an Italian surname and I mentioned to Mrs B that I'd never heard of him. She looked at me like I had a fig growing out of my lip, "Where have you been?"

Of course, now I've forgotten his name. Suggestions?

A band that used to slay me was King Crimson.

I'll tell you what happened. I went to grad school and then field research for a decade or so and just lost touch with American society. Heck, I lost reality. I've been on a slowly decaying orbit and should be back in another few years.

B

I met Roy at a show in a small club in Boston before his death. A drummer friend [ Dan brubeck] was doing a gig with him and I went along for the ride.
The Room was Johnathan Swifts and the placed was packed with nothing but guitar guys.. they went nuttzzzz when he wailed..unreal player. Literally tore the House Down !!!!

Another Hammond jazz lady was Shirly Scott, but my Fav is still Jimmy Smith.
Back at the Chicken Shack and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf. I met him in the mid '60s in DC . He got on the POP scene with Mojo Workin' ..
Other that were hip back then were Jack McDuff and Jimmy Mc Griff..

..and we all remember Billy Preston....and almost forgot , Groove Holmes.

I've got alot of the earlier stuff mentioned on this thread on my 2 jukeboxes. Booker T, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Ventures, Telstar by I think it's the Tornados, which is a song that really "fits" my space-age jukebox, the Continental. It'd be hard to pick a favorite, but probably a toss up between Duane Eddy and the Ventures. I think I like the Ventures sound a bit more, but Duane Eddy had so many hits, and variety of sounds. At Christmas I even have a Ventures Christmas CD I listen to, "Sleigh Ride" is my favorite. Chuck Berry even has an intrumental I like, "Guitar Boogie". I don't think there is an late 50's/early 60's intrumental I don't like. Well, some of Link Wrays stuff really went off on a tangent, but..........
Gilly

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That was a tune played in the movie "American Graffitti" about the teenagers in Modesto (filmed mostly in San Rafael) at loose ends in the summer after graduating from high school

When I heard it on the Mercedes commercial it made me think of summer, cruising on the strip and hot cars and the like.

I wonder if that was the thought of the marketers when they picked that
tune...

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I wonder if that was the thought of the marketers when they picked that
tune...>>

For sure ..
Drive In Restaurants w/Car Hops , Hot Cars ,Spinning Tires ..
Now Baby Bommers who are now able to Purchase a high $$$$ set of Wheels....

On the music scene, we were still listening to AM radio and it was quite common to have a top tune be an INSTRUMENTAL, of all things.. thus the Green Onions .. and guess what you were doing when you heard that tune ?? .. yup, driving your car ... your COOL car that you were in Love with.
Other instumentals from that era that are now Classics : Take Five by Brubeck , Rumble by Link Ray , Wipe Out - Safaries , Venture stuff, etc... there were Tons of them... a different world, for sure,
Again , a good choice..

It's been played and played, but 'Onions' still sounds great today. I think Booker T. was 17 when it was recorded. Stax got him right out of high school. "Melting Pot" is still a real favorite, all 8+ minutes of it. "McLemore Avenue", their album of Beatles covers is a great one as well.

Saw some online footage the other day of Booker T & the MG's opening for CCR in the early 70's. They played a killer version of 'Time is Tight' with Fogerty watching from the sidelines and loving it.

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Know the tune so well.. I worked in a Road Band for years back then and we opened up with Onions and closed with Time is Tight.
We had a Hammond B-3 and the keyboard guy was killer. [ also did a lot of Jimmy Smith stuff]

Booker T gets the award for getting the Hammond sound out of the small southern churches and into mainstream Rock/Soul music. The guy was magic.
Billy Preston was another , along with Dave Baby Cortez. and then the Rascals really hit the charts.. but B T was the Man..................

I worked one Summer Resort room in Western Mass. [ Lakeview Inn] where the owner made us keep playing "Time is Tight' until we got sick of it, but he never did and kept on hiring us just for that tune.... it was a gas...........

I'm not that familiar with the group,heard them a few times but I swear the lead guitar's a Telecaster.

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