Editing Booker T. & the M.G.'s (section)

==1970s reunions==
In 1973, Dunn and Stax [[Session musician|session]] guitarist [[Bobby Manuel]] recruited Hammond B-3 organist [[Carson Whitsett]] to be part of a band that was to back Stefan Anderson, a promising new Stax artist. Al Jackson was later brought in. The project did not ultimately yield any results, but the rehearsals were promising, prompting Jackson and Dunn to reform the M.G.'s. This version of the band featured Whitsett in place of Jones, so it was billed as simply "the MG's".<ref name="Larkin"/>

The 1973 album entitled ''[[The MG's (album)|The MG's]]'', with Manuel and Whitsett replacing Cropper and Jones, was not commercially successful.<ref name="Larkin"/> Whitsett went on to back [[Bobby Bland|Bobby "Blue" Bland]], [[Little Milton]], and [[Kathy Mattea]], and his songs were recorded by [[Johnnie Taylor]], [[Solomon Burke]], [[B. B. King]], [[Etta James]], [[Conway Twitty]], and [[Lorrie Morgan]]. Manuel became a staple of the Memphis music scene, playing with everybody from [[Al Green]] to [[Albert King]], and later founded HighStacks Records (the name being a tribute to both Stax and [[Hi Records]]).

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. They would then devote three years to what would be renamed ''Booker T. Jones & the Memphis Group''. 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.'s lineup of Jones/Cropper/Dunn/Jackson, but which had never been completed or released. 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 (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.'s, and recorded the album ''[[Universal Language (Booker T album)|Universal Language]]'' for [[Asylum Records]] in 1977.<ref name="Larkin"/> The album did not meet with either commercial or critical success, and the band once again dissolved.<ref name="Larkin"/>

Over the next decade, Cropper, Dunn and Jones remained active, producing, writing, and playing with other artists. All three joined [[Levon Helm]], formerly the drummer of [[the Band]], as part of his [[Levon Helm & the RCO All-Stars|RCO All-Stars]] in 1977. Also in that year, Cropper and Dunn became part of [[the Blues Brothers]] band, appearing on the number-one album ''[[Briefcase Full of Blues]]''. Cropper, Dunn and Hall also appeared in the 1980 movie ''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'', starring [[Dan Aykroyd]] and [[John Belushi]]. Cropper, Dunn and Hall later reprised their roles in ''[[Blues Brothers 2000]]''.