... feel ignorant if think you are the only one who never heard about the "Million Dollar Quartet." Nobody else did either, until some one unearthed the photo we saw at the end of the play. The show will run for two more weeks at the Springer Theater here in beautiful Uptown Columbus. I actually thought the story was fiction, made up of whole cloth, until the very end, when we were shown that picture of the four of them gathered around the piano in the Sun Records studio.
We went to the play, based on this obscure event that lasted only a few hours in Memphis back in the 1950's. All four of these guys were fairly young, just getting established as professional musicians, struggling to make their way in the industry. Three of them were, or had been, under contract to Sam Phillips, owner and founder of Sun.The outrageous Jerry Lee Lewis from Louisiana came to try to persuade Phillips to help him start recording. The others: Carl Perkins (wearing the famous 'Blue Suede Shoes'), John Cash (dressed in black from head to toe), and Elvis (wildly gyrating), were artists who greatly benefited by the opportunities provided by Phillips.
Apparently they all showed up at the same place at the same time, in the recording studio. Providing a little footnote to musical history. Making me wonder if any of the songs they would have done together in that late night jam-session survived. The music was great, a most entertaining show.
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