Have You Ever Heard Of The Million Dollar Quartet? We're Not Disappointed By Them At All

Mar 19, 2020 by apost team

When musicians team up for a duet it can be an amazing thing, but when four incredible musicians form a quartet? Well then magic can happen. In 1956, musicians Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins got together at Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee and recorded an impromptu session of music. The group went on to be given the name the Million Dollar Quartet at a later date, but their music lives on and it's excellent, not that we would have expected otherwise.

The story goes that on December 4, 1956 Carl Perkins was recording at Sun Record Studios in Memphis, when Jerry Lee Lewis –– then unknown outside Memphis –– was brought in to help develop the sound by playing piano on the session. By chance, Elvis Presley –– who was a former Sun Records artist –– came in one day during the Perkins sessions to visit the studio personnel and stumbled upon them at work. 

After allegedly speaking with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips and hearing a track from the sessions and proclaiming it good, Elvis is said to have gone into the studio, resulting in a jam session between the musicians.

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In another twist of fate, Johnny Cash also happened to be at Sun Records that day, and joined in for the jam session as well. He wrote later in his autobiography, Cash, that he had been the first to arrive after wanting to hear the Perkins sessions himself.

The quartet ended up performing a number of gospel songs that they'd all grown up singing, with Elvis appearing as the focal point in the recordings, since he was the biggest and most famous star at the time. This is evidenced through the strong focus on his voice in the music, as well as his central role sitting at the piano in the photos that were taken on the day.

Regarding the name, the Memphis Press-Scimitar published an article about the session and dubbed the group the Million Dollar Quartet, and the name obviously stuck. The first recording, featuring 17 songs from the session, was released in 1981, before more tracks were found and released at a later date. This collaboration between four incredible artists is considered a seminal moment in the history of rock and roll. 

You can listen to one of the songs, titled "Just A Little Talk With Jesus" down below. It's incredible to think that these four influential and talented musicians could come together so randomly and create such enduring art, but it's surely testament to their musical talents that something this special did happen.

Did you already know about the Million Dollar Quartet? What is your favorite song from their recordings? Let us know down below and pass this on to your friends and family.