THE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET
Elvis Presley (piano/guitar) ~ Jerry Lee Lewis (piano) ~ Carl
Perkins (guitar) ~ Johnny Cash
Tracks, Writers and Duration: Wikipedia
Audio Tracks: YouTube
Text: Sun Records.com
The 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. 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.”
The following day, an article, written by Memphis newspaperman Bob 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.
1. "Instrumental" (Unknown) - 1:44
2. "Love
Me Tender - Instrumental" (Presley/Matson) - 1:02
3. "Jingle Bells - Instrumental" (James Lord Pierpont)
– 1:57
4. "White Christmas - Instrumental" (Berlin) - 2:05
5. "Reconsider
Baby" (Fulsom) - 2:45 ELVIS
6. "Don't
Be Cruel" (Presley/Blackwell) - 2:20
ELVIS
7. "Don't
Be Cruel" (Presley/Blackwell) - 2:20
8. "Paralyzed"
(Presley/Blackwell) - 3:00 ELVIS
9. "Don't
Be Cruel" (Presley/Blackwell) - 0:36
10. "There's
No Place Like Home" (Payne/Bishop) - 3:36
ELVIS
11. "When The Saints Go Marchin´ In" (Traditional) - 2:18
12. "Softly
And Tenderly" (Traditional) - 2:42
13. "When God Dips His Love In My Heart" (Traditional) - 0:23
14. "Just
A Little Talk With Jesus" (Derricks) - 4:09
15. "Jesus
Walked That Lonesome Valley" (Traditional) - 3:28
JERRY LEE/ELVIS et al
16. "I
Shall Not Be Moved" (Traditional) - 3:49
ELVIS et al
17. "Peace In The Valley" (Dorsey) - 1:33
18. "Down By the Riverside" (Traditional) - 2:26
19. "I'm
With A Crowd But So Alone" (Tubb/Story) - 1:16
ELVIS (as Ernest Tubb)
20. "Farther
Along" (Traditional) - 2:08
21. "Blessed Jesus (Hold My Hand)" (Traditional) - 1:26
22. "On
The Jericho Road" (Traditional) - 0:52
ELVIS/JERRY LEE
23. "I
Just Can't Make It By Myself" (Brewster) - 1:04
24. "Little
Cabin Home On The Hill" (Bill Monroe/Lester Flatt) - 0:46 ELVIS
25. "Summertime
Is Past And Gone" (Monroe) - 0:14
ELVIS
26. "I
Hear A Sweet Voice Calling" (Monroe) - 0:36
ELVIS
27. "Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong" (Monroe) - 0:28
28. "Keeper
Of The Key" (Stewart/Howard/Devine/Guynes) - 2:08
CARL
29. "Crazy Arms" (Mooney/Seals) - 0:17
30. "Don't
Forbid Me" (Singleton) - 1:19
ELVIS
31. "Too Much Monkey Business" (Berry) - 0:05
32. "Brown
Eyed Handsome Man" (Berry) - 1:14
33. "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" (Hunter/Otis) - 0:37
34. "Brown
Eyed Handsome Man" (Berry) - 1:53
JERRY LEE / ELVIS
35. "Don't Forbid Me" (Singleton) - 0:50
36. "You Belong To My Heart" (Gilbert/Lara) - 1:10
37. "Is
It So Strange" (Young) - 1:21
38. "That's
When Your Heartaches Begin" (Hill/Fisher/Raskin) - 4:58
39. "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (Berry) - 0:17
40. "Rip It Up" (Blackwell/Marascalco) - 0:23
41. "I'm
Gonna Bid My Blues Goodbye" (Snow) - 0:55
ELVIS (as Hank Snow)
42. "Crazy Arms" (Mooney/Seals) - 3:36
43. "That's My Desire" (Loveday/Kresa) - 2:02
44. "End
Of The Road" (Lewis) - 1:44
45. "Black Bottom Stomp" (Morton)) - 1:11
46. "You’re
The Only Star In My Blue Heaven" (Autry) - 1:12
47. Elvis Says Goodbye - 0:40
