The success of the musical Million Dollar Quartet is a given, inspired by a real-life Elvis Presley/Jerry Lee Lewis/Carl Perkins/Johnny Cash jam session that took place at Sun Records in Memphis on December 4, 1956 without much fanfare beyond the Memphis area, save a newspaper article in the Memphis Press-Scimitar and a photo. While the repertoire is largely removed from what was actually recorded, it speaks well of the producers that cast members actually sing and play their instruments, free of the contrivances that often mar these sorts of musicals. Of course, it's also safe to say considerable—and I mean considerable —artistic license was taken to make this the rockabilly oldies extravaganza that it clearly is.
The facts behind that session tell us plenty about the roots of rock, especially the distinctly Southern form known as rockabilly, made famous by Presley, Lewis and Perkins. It was a style Cash could handle despite his far stronger country focus. "Get Rhythm," the number this blog is named for (the flipside of Cash's 1956 hit "I Walk the Line"), is a good example of Cash in rockabilly mode as is "Big River."
1956 was indeed his year. After spending the fall of 1954 through 1955 working on the Louisiana Hayride (Shreveport's version of the Grand Ole Opry ) and recording for Sun, Sam Phillips sold his contract to RCA for an unprecedented (at that time) $40,000. "Heartbreak Hotel," "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" turned American pop (and country) on its ear.
Whether he was booed at his first Vegas engagement, opening for comic Shecky Greene and the Freddy Martin Orchestra isn't clear, but a surviving live recording of Presley during that engagement reveals Elvis trying with little success to ingratiate himself to the polite but clearly unimpressed adult crowd. Elvis may have wanted Sam Phillips to come to RCA with him, but Phillips, flush with the money from selling Presley's contract, had moved on himself, focusing on Perkins, Cash and newcomer Jerry Lee Lewis. He tried to catch lightning in a bottle again. He ended up doing it three more times.
'56 had certainly been Cash's year. He'd had three country Top Tens: "So Doggone Lonesome," "Folsom Prison Blues," "I Walk the Line" with another, "There You Go" about to chart later in December. But Cash played a far smaller role in the MDQ sessions than most realize. Questions persist as to how long he was actually present though he is in the newspaper photo.
1956 should have been his year as well. That March, with "Blue Suede Shoes" a major-league hit single (Elvis had covered in January), Perkins and his band were enroute to perform on NBC's Perry Como Show when a devastating car crash in Delaware put them in the hospital. During that time Elvis began doing "Shoes" on his own TV appearances. The day of the MDQ session, December 4, Perkins was recording "Matchbox," (based on an old Blind Lemon Jefferson blues number) at Sun when the others visited.
Sam Phillips was out of town in November when Lewis auditioned for Jack Clement, hired by Phillips as engineer and producer. Clement recorded Lewis singing his own "End of the Road" and a cover of the Ray Price honky tonk hit "Crazy Arms." Phillips and Clement used Lewis as a studio pianist. He'd been working with Perkins on the "Matchbox" session. "Crazy Arms" was a dud in the marketplace but in 1957, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire" launched Lewis's career. Of the four, only Jerry Lee survives and still performs.
Oh, today singer-producer-songwriter "Cowboy" Jack Clement, who turned 80 this year, is considered one of Nashville's most visionary--and beloved--musical eccentrics.
It's no surprise anything as loose and free-form as the MDQ get-together included full songs and a ton of song fragments, a few numbers repeated here and there. What's telling is the songs thrown into the mix. Some were their own hits, or hits by others. The blend is country, bluegrass, blues, dashes of jazz and pop favorites, one going back to the early 19 th Century. But the dominant style here hearkened back to the roots of all four: gospel.
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