In addition to including cover versions on albums (later to be compiled into collections such as Soul Men), Booker T. & the MGs also released several cover versions as singles.

“Mrs. Robinson” was written by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle for the subject of Anne Bancroft’s legendary performance in 1967’s The Graduate. The MGs laid their version down in early ‘69: Jones and Cropper swap off the verses and break down the bridge into dueling keyboards and guitar, both digging in to find corners more sharp and dark than the comparatively bright folk-rock original. “Mrs. Robinson” was released later that year on The Booker T. Set, an album consisting entirely of cover versions (which prophetically included two Lennon-McCartney tunes, “Lady Madonna” and “Michelle”).

Just about a year later, the group recorded George Harrison’s “Something” to be part of tribute to the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, retitled McLemore Avenue to reflect the MG’s own Memphis sound (a tribute right down to its album cover, which copied the Beatles’ “musicians crossing the street” idea). “I was moved by the Beatles. I thought they were doing really great things,” Jones has said. “They started to write these beautiful melodies and this stuff was coming from left field. Their records didn’t each sound alike ever. Not very many people were doing that. I wanted to pay tribute to that.”

“Something” opens with Booker on a grand sounding acoustic piano before he shifts to organ. The gospel organ sound recalls Billy Preston’s session work with the Beatles, and when Cropper doubles up his guitar with Booker, there’s something almost regal, majestic, about the combination. The second half of their arrangement bears almost no similarity to this straight-up first part; rather, Jones and the rhythm section hammer down almost martial chords and time beneath a hard-wired, electric Cropper solo.

Despite the band’s honorable intentions, “Something” proved more a musical than a commercial success; the single barely dented the Pop chart (#76) and didn’t even make the R&B chart.

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