Million Dollar Quartet

Million Dollar Quartet is the name given to recordings made on Tuesday December 4 1956 in the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were of an impromptu jam session between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. A musical based on the recording session opened at the Goodman Theatre on Sept. 27, 2008. ^[1]

The session

The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. Perkins, who by this time had already met success with "Blue Suede Shoes", had come into the studios that day, accompanied by his brothers Clayton and Jay and by drummer W.S. Holland, their aim being to cut some new material, including a revamped version of an old blues song, "Matchbox". Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, who wished to try to fatten this sparse rockabilly instrumentation, had brought in his latest acquisition, singer and piano man extraordinaire, Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to play the piano on the Perkins session.

Sometime in the early afternoon, Elvis Presley, a former Sun artist himself, but now at RCA, dropped in to pay a casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans. He was, at the time, the biggest name in show business, having hit the top of the singles charts five times, and topping the album charts twice in the preceding 12 month period. Less than four months earlier, he had appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, pulling an unheard-of 83% of the television audience, which was estimated at 55 million, the largest in history, up to that time. After chatting with Philips in the control room, Presley listened to the playback of the Perkins’ session, which he pronounced to be good. Then he went into the studio and some time later the jam session began. Phillips left the tapes running in order to "capture the moment" as a souvenir and for posterity. At some point during the session, Sun artist Johnny Cash, who had also enjoyed a few hits on the country charts, popped in (Cash noted in his autobiography Cash that it was he who was the first to arrive at Sun Studio that day). As Jerry Lee pounded away on the piano, Elvis and his girlfriend at some point slipped out. Cash claims in Cash that "no one wanted to follow Jerry Lee, not even Elvis"

As the session continued, Phillips spotted an opportunity for some publicity and called a local newspaper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar. Bob Johnson, the newspaper’s entertainment editor came over to the studios accompanied by a UPI representative named Leo Soroca, and a photographer.

The following day, an article, written by Johnson about the session, was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title, "Million Dollar Quartet". The article contained the now well known photograph of Elvis Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.

The tapes published

Tapes of the session remained "in the can" for over twenty years, probably due to contractual reasons, until in 1969, Shelby Singleton bought Sun Records. He began a long search of the Sun catalogue, browsing through more than 10,000 hours of tape.

At the same time, Singleton licensed much, if not all, of the Sun catalogue to the English Charly label for reissue in Europe. As a result of Singleton’s and Charly's search of the Sun catalogue, a portion of the session came to light. This was issued in Europe 1981] as "Charly/Sun" LP #1006 The Million Dollar Quartet, and it contained seventeen tracks, almost all of which were gospel/spiritual music.

Several years later, additional material was discovered. This resulted in the release of the 1987 "Charly/Sun" 2 LP set #CDX 20 The Complete Million Dollar Session, together with their simultaneous issue in CD format in Europe. In 1990, they were replicated by RCA for US distribution as a CD, titled, Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet (RCA CD # 2023-2-R), the sleeve notes of which were written by Colin Escott of Showtime Music, Toronto. A 2006 50th anniversary issue of the session was released on RCA, containing approximately twelve minutes of previously unavailable material and places the titles in the original recorded sequence. The source of the recording was a copy of the session owned by Elvis Presley.

According to Ernst Jorgensen, an authority on Elvis who consults for BMG, the published material contains about 95 percent of the master recordings. "We found three reels," he says. "You could always argue that there were more. But in the first you can hear Elvis arriving and in the last you can hear him leaving. I doubt that there are more."

The published albums/CDs contain 46 musical tracks, most of which are incomplete and are interspersed with chatter between the participants. They are not pristine, well rehearsed studio recordings, which were meant for commercial release, but rather the sound of a group of friends, who are gathered together to play old favorites and share the pleasure of making music together. Bob Johnson described it as "an old fashioned barrel-house session with barber shop harmonies resulting."

The choice of songs

Country music and Country gospel loom large in the choice of songs. The songs of such Country and Western legends as Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow and Gene Autry are among those featured. Lewis played most of the piano and Presley took nearly all of the lead vocals. The other participants easily follow Presley’s lead with what seems a close familiarity with his choice of songs. Critics have remarked on the irony of his choices as rock & roll was branded as satanic music at the time.

Carl Perkins only took the lead on "Keeper Of The Key" and seemed content to play guitar and supply harmony vocals. He had, however, been singing all afternoon. Clayton Perkins and Jay Perkins and drummer W. S. Holland can be heard on the earliest titles. The rhythm guitar on the earlier songs was played by Charles Underwood, who was a writer for Phillips’ publishing companies. Presley also brought with him another aspiring singer, Cliff Gleaves, who might be participating on some of the ensemble parts.

Jerry Lee Lewis can be heard more frequently, often singing in duet with Presley and at the end of the session, when Presley got up to leave, he swiftly took over the piano and whipped off five piano ravers in rapid succession, including a rousing "Crazy Arms" (his debut Sun single) and a soulful make-over of Gene Autry's "You're the Only Star in My Blue Heaven".

Colin Escott has reported that according to Charles Underwood, Presley and Phillips went into the control room while Lewis was playing and Presley commented to Bob Johnson that “[Lewis] could go. I think he has a great future ahead of him. He had a different style and the way he plays piano and gets inside me.”

More importantly, however, Johnny Cash’s voice does not seem to appear on any of the published tracks. Colin Escott reports that according to Bob Johnson, Cash joined Presley, Perkins and Lewis on "Blueberry Hill" and "Isle Of Golden Dreams". This was confirmed by Carl Perkins in a 1972 interview, when he stated that “we did things like "Blueberry Hill", "Island Of Golden Dreams", "I Won't Have To Cross The Jordan Alone", "The Old Rugged Cross", "Peace in the Valley", "Tutti Frutti" and "Big Boss Man"”. "Peace in the Valley" is the only published track and none of the others ever seem to have been found. Johnny Cash's autobiography 'Cash' states that he sings on the tracks but he sings in a higher pitch than usually to blend better with Elvis' vocal. Furthermore he writes that he stood far from the microphone.

The point at which Johnny Cash arrived at the studio is a matter of discussion. Some sources, (Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet by June Moore, published 4th June 1999), (Rolling Stone review (RS520)), (Carl Perkins interview with Rockville International on February 27 1972) report that Cash was already at the studios, when Presley arrived. Perkins said that Cash had stopped into the studios to “get some money”.

Cash, in the book, CASH: The Autobiography (1997, by John R. Cash) commented, “I was there - I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, contrary to what has been written - but I was just there to watch Carl record, which he did until mid-afternoon, when Elvis came in with his girlfriend. At that point the session stopped and we all started laughing and cutting up together. Then Elvis sat down at the piano, and we started singing gospel songs we all knew, then some Bill Monroe songs. Elvis wanted to hear songs Bill had written besides "Blue Moon of Kentucky", and I knew the whole repertoire. So, again contrary to what some people have written, my voice is on the tape. It's not obvious, because I was farthest away from the mic and I was singing a lot higher than I usually did in order to stay in key with Elvis, but I guarantee you, I'm there”.

Some reports, however, including one in a very detailed account in Peter Guralnick's book, Last Train To Memphis - The Rise of Elvis Presley, suggest that Johnny only stayed for a short time and then left, possibly to do some Christmas shopping. Colin Escott also reports that Cash was only brought in late in the session, after Sam Phillips had decided to call the Memphis Press Scimitar.

The fact that Cash may not have been present throughout the whole session seems to be confirmed by two pieces of “chatter” caught on the tapes. In the first, another Sun artist, Smokey Joe Baugh, came by and his gravelly voice can be heard after "I Shall No Be Moved", saying “You oughta get up a quartet.” In the second, a female voice, probably Marilyn Evans, can be heard asking if “This Rover Boys Trio can sing "Farther Along"?” On the other hand, Elvis is plainly heard mentioning Cash by name on the track "As We Travel Along The Jericho Road", at the 0:07 mark, although the form of the reference leaves it ambiguous as to whether Cash was on premises at that point. Elvis can also be heard saying goodbye to someone named Johnny during the "Elvis Says Goodbye" track that closes the 50th anniversary release.

Country music was not the only choice of the participants; they performed "There’s No Place Like Home", a sentimental Rodgers and Hammerstein showbiz ballad as an energetic rockabilly clip. They can also be heard turning their attention to the hit parade of the day. Presley led the session with "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind", an R & B song popularized by the Five Keys. Meanwhile, Lewis sings one line of Chuck Berry’s "Too Much Monkey Business" which leads into Lewis and Presley experimenting with snippets of Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man". Elvis can also be heard singing a snippet of Little Richard’s "Rip It Up" (with a ribald change in the lyric) and Pat Boone’s hit of the day, "Don’t Forbid Me" which Elvis on the tape claims was first offered to him but the demo "sat around my house" without being played.

In addition, Presley previewed material that he was considering for up-coming RCA sessions in January and February 1957. He sang "Is It So Strange", "Peace In The Valley" and "That’s When Your Heartaches Begin", which he acknowledges on the tape as having been one of the songs he recorded for Sun during his demo session a couple of years earlier, and which he would record again for RCA a month later. In the case of "Is It So Strange", he comments, “Ol' Faron Young wrote this song sent to me to record."

The title, which most critics seem to highlight, is Presley’s rendition of "Don't Be Cruel", one of his major hits of 1956 (see 1956 in music). But this is not Presley singing Presley, but his imitation of Jackie Wilson, then the lead singer with Billy Ward’s Dominoes, imitating him. It appears as though the Presley entourage spent a few days in Las Vegas (most likely during Presley's short-lived tenure earlier in the year at the Frontier Hotel) and went to watch Jackie Wilson, who had obviously built an impersonation of Presley into his act.

Presley describes Jackie Wilson tearing up Las Vegas audiences with a house-on-fire rendition of "Don't Be Cruel". He goes on to say that, "He tried so hard until he got much better, boy, much better than that record of mine.... I went back four nights straight and heard that guy do that," he says, imitating Wilson's bluesy smolder and big orgasmic finish.

"He sung the hell out of the song," Elvis can be heard saying with admiration, adding with a laugh, "I was on the table lookin' at him, 'Get 'im off, get 'im off!'" Obviously on a roll, Presley, then ripped into a slower, sassier version of his latest RCA single "Paralyzed", backed up by Perkins and his trio.

According to the Rolling Stone review of the album, "'The Complete Million Dollar Session' provides a rare post-Sun glimpse of Elvis Presley momentarily free of the golden shackles of stardom and the manipulative grasp of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. His singing, especially on the gospel numbers, is natural and relaxed, minus some of the trademark mannerisms of his official RCA releases."

The general view of those who have listened to the Million Dollar Quartet tapes, is that Perkins, Lewis and Presley dug into their musical roots and blended everything that they had heard in a loose and vital way, which said more about the origins of rock & roll than a thousand treatises. As Colin Escott has said, "They mixed and matched their disparate styles – and their innate musicality ensured that what emerged had the rarest of all musical qualities: originality".

Some thirty years later, Perkins, Lewis, Cash and Roy Orbison, a Sun recording artist in 1956, went back into the Sun Studios to record a session of their own Class of '55.

Reunions

The Survivors Live - a 1982 live album featuring Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins during Johnny Cash's 1981 tour of Europe.
Class of '55 - a 1986 reunion of the Million Dollar Quartet, this time adding another Sun Records alumni, Roy Orbison; this was actually recorded at the original Memphis Recording Service building.
Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions - an album featuring interviews and chatter during the recording of Class of '55, which won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in 1987.