The Complete Million Dollar Quartet

Performer: Elvis Presley
Engineer: Sam Phillips
Producer: Ernst Mikael Jorgensen (Compilation); Roger Semon (Compilation)
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Liner Note Author: Colin Escott. The product of a casual afternoon jam session in 1956 between Elvis Presley, then the biggest star in America, and the rock & roll legends Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, these songs are a world away from the tight, well-produced rock & roll that Sam Phillips's Sun Studios was recording and releasing in the mid-1950s. More than half the material heard here consists of gospel music, and there are also versions of Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" and "Too Much Monkey Business," as well as some classic country songs penned by Hank Snow, Gene Autry, and Bill Monroe. Relaxed and informal, these recordings are an illuminating snapshot of a moment in rock & roll history.

Mojo (Publisher) (p.115) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he session has, for the first time, been pieced together in the very order that it took place....The session transmutes into a ramshackle chunk of joy..."

"Before Elvis, there was nothing," John Lennon once said. An overstatement, of course, but Elvis Presley's ascendance to superstardom in the mid-1950s kicked off a musical and social revolution whose impact has yet to abate. After the charming young man from Tupelo, Mississippi was discovered by Sun Records honcho Sam Phillips, the wise studio owner took Presley under his wing, leading to the landmark recording of his first single, "That's All Right (Mama)." The rest, of course, is well-documented history, with Elvis going on to conquer the pop charts, the box office, and beyond. He truly was the King, and his blend of country, pop, and R&B became the cornerstone of rock & roll.

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