The Million Dollar Quartet
Johnny, Jerry, Carl and Elvis
On this day 68 years ago, Carl Perkins came into the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, TN intending to record some new material. along with his brothers, Clayton and Jay, as well as his drummer, W. S. "Fluke" Holland. Perkins’ "Blue Suede Shoes" had been released at the beginning of the year and Perkins was already well known for that hit.
Sam Phillips had brought in his recently scouted and acquired talents to add piano to Perkins’ recordings. At the time, Jerry Lee Lewis was not know beyond Memphis. Just so happens former Sun Records singer Elvis Presley stopped by with his girlfriend, Marilyn Evans — just a visit to his former studio (Presley had by this time signed with RCA Victor) for hoots and the heck of it. After Presley had listened to, and praised, the playback of what Perkins and company had laid down, an impromptu jam session took shape. While account conflict about exactly when Johnny Cash joined this rock and roll reverie, at some point he did.
Jack Henderson Clement, audio engineer at Sun that day, had the instincts to record what was happening as the boys began to jam with no viable commercial outcome in mind.
Ever promotionally-minded, Sam Phillips called a Memphis Press-Scimitar reporter and alerted him what was taking place. That worked. Reporter and photographer soon showed up. The next day an article about the jam session, with a photo, ran in the local paper under the headline “Million Dollar Quartet.”
The minutiae leading up to the tapes being rediscovered is tedious. Sufficient to say here that they were and the first version of The Million Dollar Quartet recordings were released in 1981. Many of the tracks are more historic artifacts than fully realized works. (What do you want? It was just a jam session.)
Most fun is when these guys did some of the standards they all grew up with. Although Jerry Lee Lewis doesn’t seem to be all that present in this track.
This event and the resulting issued recordings inspired a stage musical, a couple of books and probably a supply of plastic diner placemats somewhere in Memphis.
#30#