thumb|Guitarist [[Steve Cropper (pictured in 2007) was a founding member of the Mar-Keys]]

The Mar-Keys were an American studio session band for Stax Records, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1960s. Formed in 1958 as the first house band for the label, their backing music formed the foundation for the early 1960s Stax sound.

Career

Early success with "Last Night" (1961)

The group began as the Royal Spades while its members were in high school. However, the live lineup of the Mar-Keys was not always the same as the band heard on the recordings.

Their first and most famous recording was the organ- and saxophone-driven single "Last Night", It sold over one million copies, earning certification as a gold disc. The lineup for this recording included the Royal Spades' Steve Cropper (normally a guitarist, here playing second keyboard; producer Chips Moman did not want a guitar part on the song), Packy Axton (tenor sax), Wayne Jackson (trumpet), and Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith (main keyboards), augmented by horn players Floyd Newman (baritone sax), Gilbert Caple (tenor sax) and others.

Terry Johnson (born James Terry Johnson on April 3, 1943, in Memphis, Tennessee) died on March 19, 2016, after a short illness, at age 72.

Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith (born November 13, 1939 in East Prairie, Missouri) died on September 6, 2022, in Bartlett, Tennessee, at the age of 82.

Members

  • Steve Cropper – guitar
  • Charlie "Redman" Freeman – guitar
  • Donald "Duck" Dunn - bass guitar
  • Howard Grimes – drums
  • James "Terry" Johnson – drums, piano
  • Wayne Jackson – trumpet, trombone
  • Charles "Packy" Axton – tenor saxophone
  • Gilbert Caple – tenor saxophone
  • Floyd Newman – baritone saxophone, vocals on "Last Night"
  • Don Nix – baritone saxophone
  • Andrew Love - tenor saxophone
  • Gene Parker – tenor saxophone
  • Joe Arnold – alto saxophone
  • Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith – keyboards
  • Marvell Thomas – keyboards
  • Booker T. Jones – keyboards
  • Isaac Hayes – organ
  • Al Jackson Jr. – drums
  • Billy Purser (aka Gary Burbank) – drums
  • Rick Keefer – bass guitar
  • Ronnie "Angel" Stoots was the band's lead vocalist when they had gigs on the road.

! style="width:50px;"| US R&B<br>