Room 4-4-2: Soul Limbo

It's the sound of summer. No, not leather on willow, but the bink, tink, tink, a-tinka, tink, tink of the BBC's cricket coverage theme tune. This iconic piece of music, which takes its place in our summer hall of fame, was recorded by Booker T and the MGs.

The track was released on Stax as the title track of the band's 1968 album, their eighth for the famous Memphis label. The soul quartet, who were also the house band for Stax, specialised in instrumentals and backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett.

Soul Limbo peaked at No 17 in the American chart and at No 30 in the UK, making it one of their biggest hits. It was picked up by the BBC and used as the theme music for television coverage of the summer game and is still in use to introduce Test Match Special on radio. Suitably for a cricket theme, Soul Limbo’s B-side was called Heads or Tails.

The 1968 line-up for Booker T and the MGs was Booker T. Jones (pictured) on keyboards, Al Jackson Jr on drums, Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass and Steve Cropper on guitar, with Terry Manning guesting on marimba.

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Words by Calvin Shulman