The Million Dollar Quartet at Sun Studios - Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis December 4, 1956

Oh, I am well aware that this offering can be had on a number of blogs but I felt compelled to include it here anyway. I love this one and just recently revisited it a little while back. There must have been a full moon or a unique alignment in the heavens on this particular winter evening in Memphis (hmmmmm....celestial alignment...Memphis...Egypt?...I must consult further..) to put these incredible young men together in the cramped confines of Sam Phillips' rinky-dinky hillbilly studio. Whatever caused them to combine for an evening of song and laughter, we all can be grateful that it happened and the ever-sharp business acumen of Phillips for calling the local paper's entertainment editor to capture the moment. Although there is so many fragments of songs and not much complete, I believe it can still be listened to and enjoyed for it's ability to crystalize a moment in American history, as so few of it's like have been properly captured for us to appreciate. Thank you wikipedia for the below descrition...

"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 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."

01 You Belong To My Heart (Ray Gilbert/Agustín Lara) Elvis Presley 0:45
02 When God Dips His Love In My Heart (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 0:18
03 Just A Little Talk With Jesus (Clevant Derricks) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 3:52
04 Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 2:52
05 I Shall Not Be Moved (Ray Gilbert/Agustín Lara Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 3:01
06 Peace In The Valley (Thomas A. Dorsey) Elvis Presley 1:20
07 Down By The Riverside (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 2:11
08 I'm With A Crowd But So Alone (Ernest Tubb/Carl Story) Elvis Presley 1:17
09 Farther Along (trad.) All 1:38
10 Blessed Jesus (Hold My Hand) (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 1:24
11 As We Travel Along On The Jericho Road (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 0:42
12 I Just Can't Make It By Myself (Clara Ward) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 0:59
13 Little Cabin Home On The Hill (Bill Monroe/Lester Flatt) Elvis Presley 0:38
14 Summertime Is Past And Gone (Bill Monroe) Elvis Presley & Carl Perkins 0:06
15 I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling (Bill Monroe) All 0:27
16 Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong (Bill Monroe/Lester Flatt) All 0:26
17 Keeper Of The Key (B.Stewart/H.Howard/K.Devine/L.Guynes) Carl Perkins 0:45
18 Crazy Arms (Ralph Mooney/Charles Seals) Jerry Lee Lewis 0:18
19 Don't Forbid Me (Charles Singleton) Elvis Presley 0:56
20 Too Much Monkey Business (Chuck Berry) Jerry Lee Lewis 0:05
21 Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 1:00
22 Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind (Ivory Joe Hunter/Clyde Otis) Elvis Presley 0:45
23 Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 1:42
24 Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley/Otis Blackwell) Elvis Presley 1:41
25 Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley/Otis Blackwell) Elvis Presley 0:37
26 Paralyzed (Elvis Presley/Otis Blackwell) Elvis Presley 2:36
27 Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley/Otis Blackwell) Elvis Presley 0:24
28 There's No Place Like Home (trad.) Elvis Presley 3:18
29 When The Saints Go Marchin' In (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 2:14
30 Softly And Tenderly (trad.) Elvis Presley & Jerry Lee Lewis 2:27
31 Is It So Strange (Faron Young) Elvis Presley 1:09
32 That's When Your Heartaches Begin (W.Hill/F.Fisher/W.Raskin) Elvis Presley 4:37
33 Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry) Elvis Presley 0:20
34 Rip It Up (Robert Blackwell/J.Marascalco) Elvis Presley 0:03
35 I'm Gonna Bid My Blues Goodbye (Hank Snow) Elvis Presley 0:31
36 Crazy Arms (Ralph Mooney/Charles Seals) Jerry Lee Lewis 3:13
37 That's My Desire (Helmy Kresa/Carroll Loveday) Jerry Lee Lewis 1:17
38 End Of The Road (Jerry Lee Lewis) Jerry Lee Lewis 1:35
39 Black Bottom Stomp (Ferdinand Morton) Jerry Lee Lewis (instr.) 0:54
40 You're The Only Star In My Blue Heaven (Gene Autry) Jerry Lee Lewis 1:13
41 Elvis chatter 0:39

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Elvis Presley - G.I. Blues Collectors Edition


I believe I have already given my opinion on Elvis here, right? Well, to summarize - I appreciate him more as a cultural milestone than as a singer (he wasn't much of a musician), but I do not wish to slight those who may be great fans of his. We may just have to agree to disagree. I DO believe the burgeoning rock and roll movement took a swift kick in the nuts as soon as he was drafted into service for the Army and sent to Germany. If not for Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins and a few others, it may have extinguished altogether before reaching it's fruition. So, for me, this is one of the more bearable Elvis offerings and is offered as an answer to a request. Please understand that I do read all of the e-mails and comments and would love to fill all the requests and such but I have a backlog of about 200 requests and will get to them as my time allows. I hope htere are some fans out there who do not already have this one and it pleases their ears. Peace.





1. Tonight Is So Right for Love (2:12)
2 What's She Really Like (2:16)
3 Frankfort Special (2:55)
4 Wooden Heart (2:02)
5 G.I. Blues (2:35)
6 Pocketful of Rainbows (2:32)
7 Shoppin' Around (2:21)
8 Big Boots (1:30)
9 Didja' Ever (2:35)
10 Blue Suede Shoes (2:05)
11 Doin' the Best I Can (3:09)
12 Tonight's All Right for Love (1:21)
13 Big Boots (Fast Version) (1:14)
14 Shoppin' Around (Alternate Take 11) (2:15)
15 Frankfort Special (Fast Version - Take 2) (2:25)
16 Pocketful of Rainbows (Alternate Take 2) (2:47)
17 Didja' Ever (Alternate Take 1) (2:42)
18 Big Boots (Acoustic Version) (0:58)
19 What's She Really Like (Alternate Take 7) (2:24)
20 Doin' the Best I Can (Alternate Take 9) (3:17)




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Elvis Presley At Sun Records



Hopefully my Christian friends have a sense of humor about the picture at the bottom, I just cracked up when I saw it and had to include it here. Enough of that. I have seen a few 'Elvis at Sun' compilations and have not seen this one before. Also, since it also the only era of his career that I really enjoy, I hoped a few here would as well. That's the great thing about having one's own blog. I always appreciated Elvis as a cultural icon and stylistic signpost, but what I really remember of him was the bloated junkie performing pantomime in Vegas. He died when I was about 6 and it made an impression. I do recall my dad relating stories of how significant his contribution to popular music was to me when I was younger but I wasn't hearing any of it. The more I educated myself on the topic and looked deeper I could see some of what the old folks (sorry) were talking about. He certainly didn't invent rock & roll (he kinda stole, but we'll keep that under our hats, right?) but he was the image of the music and lifestyle when it went berzerk in the 1950's. In the days before his Army induction he seemed genuinely 'dangerous' to mid 50's America (which, albeit isn't saying much by today's standards...) and I can dig that and give him some posthumous respect for it. But, I digress - this is some great early Elvis and should please many ears. By the way, for all my rough talk about how much I don't enjoy most of his music 0 I do have about 200 albums worth of material here and if anyone need any, please just ask


01 - Harbour Lights
02 - I Love You Because
03 - Thats All Right
04 - Blue Moon Of Kentucky
05 - Blue Moon
06 - Tomorrow Right
07 - Ill Never Let You Go
08 - Just Because
09 - Good Rockin Tonight
10 - I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine
11 - Milkcow Blues Boogie
12 - Youre A Heartbreaker
13 - Im Left youre Right Shes Gone
14 - I'm Left Youre Right Shes Gone
15 - Baby Lets Play House
16 - I Forgot To Remember To Forget
17 - Mystery Train
18 - Trying To Get To You.
19 - When It Rains It Really Pours

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