{"id":281606,"date":"2011-02-25T01:54:18","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T01:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/02\/25\/the-first-fab-four-the-story-of-the-greatest-ever-jam-session-featuring-elvis-johnny-cash-jerry-lee-lewis-and-carl-perkins-is-coming-to-the-stage\/"},"modified":"2011-02-25T01:54:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T01:54:18","slug":"the-first-fab-four-the-story-of-the-greatest-ever-jam-session-featuring-elvis-johnny-cash-jerry-lee-lewis-and-carl-perkins-is-coming-to-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/the-first-fab-four-the-story-of-the-greatest-ever-jam-session-featuring-elvis-johnny-cash-jerry-lee-lewis-and-carl-perkins-is-coming-to-the-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"The first Fab Four: The story of the greatest ever jam session featuring Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins is coming to the stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

\nBy
\nMichael Hellicar<\/a>
Last updated at 1:54 AM on 25th February 2011<\/p>\n

Armed with a long list of Christmas presents to buy for his parents and friends, 21-year-old Elvis Presley slipped behind the wheel of his shiny black truck and set out to drive the five miles from his home in Memphis to the city centre.<\/p>\n

Presley\u2019s girlfriend, Marilyn Evans, had tagged along, with instructions from his mother, Gladys, to make sure he finished the shopping, \u2018and don\u2019t you let him spend too much of his pay\u2019.<\/p>\n

But Presley and Marilyn never did buy any presents that day. Along the way, he took a detour down Union Avenue to show her the little Sun Records studio which had been his springboard to world stardom.<\/p>\n

\n\"Golden<\/p>\n

Golden moment: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash at their impromptu 1956 jam session\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As they drove past the red brick building at No\u2009706, Elvis saw several cars parked outside and the soundproof shutters closed. It could mean only one thing: a recording session was in progress.<\/p>\n

Leaping out of the truck, he hammered on the locked door until it was opened by the label\u2019s boss. Sam Phillips. \u2018There\u2019s some friends in here makin\u2019 your kind of music,\u2019 he told Presley.<\/p>\n

\n\"Faithful<\/p>\n

Faithful reproduction: The cast of Million Dollar Quartet – Ben Goddard, Robert Britton Lyons, Michael Malarkey and Derek Hagen – recreate the historic session<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Inside, he found rockabilly singer Carl Perkins recording a song called Matchbox, accompanied by a little-known pianist called Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Johnny Cash idly strumming on guitar.<\/p>\n

Presley grabbed a microphone and began singing. For the next 90 minutes the four rockers belted out whatever songs came into their heads, with Phillips shrewdly letting the tape run throughout the impromptu session, recording even their banter. <\/p>\n

And so the first supergroup was born. The date, December 4, 1956, has gone down in the chequered history of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll as the day of the Million Dollar Quartet.<\/p>\n

That session has been turned into a stage musical which opens in London on Monday, recreating every word and every note. <\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s like switching on a 55-year-old jukebox and getting hit by a blast of raw rock,\u2019 says 27-year-old Michael Malarkey, who plays Elvis.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s almost eerie \u2014 Presley, Cash and Perkins are all dead, as is Sam Phillips, and only Jerry Lee survives. <\/p>\n

\u2018Yet ironically he led the wildest rock \u2019n\u2019 roll lifestyle of any of them. But the music they made lives on and is just as exciting today as it was at that original impromptu jamming session.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\n\"The<\/p>\n

The King: Elvis Presley strikes a typical early pelvis-twisting pose<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Canadian-born Derek Hagen, 33, plays Cash. Robert Britton Lyons, 34, as Perkins, is the\u00a0 only member from the original U.S. cast.<\/p>\n

The original tapes could not be released at the time they were recorded. Although Presley had started his career as a Sun signing, he had moved to the giant RCA label when he hit the big time a year earlier \u2014 Phillips sold his contract to them to ease his own money problems. So some of the recordings gathered dust in Sun\u2019s archives, and the rest were kept by Presley and only found after his home, Graceland, was searched after his death in 1977. <\/p>\n

They have been released at various times since 1981, most recently in 2006 to mark the 50th anniversary of the session, when 12 minutes of previously unheard material was included. <\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of people knew about the tapes,\u2019 says Ben Goddard, 37, who plays the 21-year-old Lewis. <\/p>\n

\u2018Word had got around because Sam Phillips had made sure the Memphis local paper carried a story about the session, but nobody knew for years where they were.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Sun Records building is now a national monument, and for \u00a38 a head tourists are shown iconic sights such as Presley\u2019s microphone and can stand on the exact spot where he recorded his first hit, That\u2019s All Right.<\/p>\n

\u2018For such a tiny, scrappy little studio, it has an amazing pedigree,\u2019 says DJ Neil Fox, who has visited 706 Union Avenue. <\/p>\n

\u2018Almost every artist in rock music and beyond \u2014 pop, country, blues, you name it \u2014 has been influenced by those four guys and the music that came out of Sun.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fox continues: \u2018The Beatles, the Stones and many, many others owe something to them. And that day, nothing had been planned beyond Carl Perkins being booked. <\/p>\n

\u2018Jerry Lee wasn\u2019t even the regular pianist \u2014 he\u2019d been brought in by Phillips to give some beef to the music. Johnny Cash had called in because he wasn\u2019t doing anything that day and Elvis was on a day off.<\/p>\n

\u2018They got through nearly 50 songs. The nice thing is they hadn\u2019t been brought together by a manager or a money-maker \u2014 it was all for their own innocent enjoyment. <\/p>\n

\u2018And when it was all over, they climbed into their trucks and went their separate ways.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fox says the only thing he\u2019d argue with is that calling Presley, Perkins, Cash and Jerry Lee a million dollar quartet is under-valuing them by today\u2019s standards. <\/p>\n

‘Nowadays, you\u2019d have to call them the Billion Dollar Quartet \u2014 or maybe more.\u2019<\/p>\n

Million Dollar Quartet opens at London\u2019s Noel Coward Theatre on Monday. For tickets call 0844 482 5141, or go to\u00a0 milliondollarquartet.co.uk.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

See the rest here:
\nThe first Fab Four: The story of the greatest ever jam session featuring Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins is coming to the stage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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