On December 4th, 1956, the famous photo was taken of “The Million-Dollar Quartet” at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis Presley stopped by 706 Union Avenue while Carl Perkins recorded. Jerry Lee Lewis was there to play piano on the session but had yet to reach the charts with any releases. And Johnny Cash was on hand to listen to the proceedings, as well. Studio owner Sam Phillips called the Memphis Press-Scimitar newspaper and got a photographer down to the studio to capture the moment. The photo ran the following day accompanied by the headline, “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET.”
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Rock’ n’ roll was still in its infancy. Presley was a big star. Perkins was riding the wave of success from his hit version of “Blue Suede Shoes,” released earlier that year. Presley would release a hit version eight months later. Johnny Cash had two No. 1 country songs that year, “I Walk the Line” and “There You Go.” Phillips believed that Lewis would be the biggest star of all of them. And he would be on track to be just that before scandal derailed his career a few years later.
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All four men had impressive careers. Presley was declared the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll but left us in August ’77. The other three had long careers full of highs and lows. All of them pivoted to country music and continued to perform. It was in September ’85 when the remaining trio reunited in Memphis to record an album. Roy Orbison was pulled in to round out the quartet because of his connection with Sun Records. His first success was with the label in 1956 when he released “Ooby Dooby.” His greater career achievements, however, happened on Monument Records in the ’60s.
A series of recording sessions took place in September 1985, beginning with a photo shoot at the original location of Sun Records. After the building at 706 Union Avenue was used as a recording studio, the 18-by-29-foot room was used as a plumber’s shop and an auto parts supply storage facility. It wasn’t transformed back into a studio until 1987. So most of the recordings for what would become Class Of ’55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming were captured in another famous Memphis studio, American Sound.
The studio at 827 Thomas Street was known for recording more than 50 Gold-record hits in the late ’60s and early ’70s, including “Sweet Caroline” and “Holly Holy” by Neil Diamond, “Son of a Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield, and “In the Ghetto” and “Kentucky Rain” by Elvis Presley. The events were all filmed by Dick Clark Productions, and a series of interviews was conducted for the project by Gene Weed.
Latter-Day Perspectives
Carl Perkins shared the story behind the spark that ignited his biggest hit. “I was playing a club in Jackson, Tennessee. This cat said that to a girl, he said, ‘Don’t step on my suedes.’ And she was so pretty that it bothered me that he thought that much of his shoes. It really did. It tore me up. ‘Cause I had not owned a pair of ’em at that time. I wanted ’em, but that was a little out of my class, you know, to be able to afford that. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”
Johnny Cash recalled his leaner days. “I was remembering the day I signed my recording contract. At that time, I was working for a man named George Bates in Memphis at a place called Home Equipment Company, selling home improvements, refrigerators, and washing machines. I was broke. I had 15 cents in my pocket the day I signed my recording contract, and I didn’t have a paycheck coming. And when I walked out the door, and I thought of this yesterday when I crossed those steps, there was a panhandler who asked me for money when I walked out the door, and at that time, cigarettes were 20 cents a package, and a loaf of bread was 20 cents, and I didn’t have enough for either one, so I gave him my 15 cents and walked on.”
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Jerry Lee Lewis talked about his favorite piano player. “I taught myself to play, two weeks, I was playing pretty good. Couple months, I was doing fair. A year later, I was playing just like I’m playing right now. Sam Phillips heard me. He said, ‘Son, what are you gonna do six months from now when you’re making 10-thousand dollars a night?’ I said, ‘Mr. Phillips, I’ll be thankful to God if I can make 50 dollars a night six months from now.'”
Roy Orbison spoke of how he got connected with Sun. “So, I asked John Cash backstage. I said, ‘How do you get on records?’ He said, ‘call Sam Phillips and tell him I recommended you.’ So I did. He said, ‘Johnny Cash doesn’t run my record company and hung up the phone.’ So, we went to Clovis, New Mexico, and recorded “Ooby Dooby.” … Sam Phillips heard the record and asked if we could be here in three days.”
Celebrating the Birth of Rock
The sessions were a celebration. Producer Chips Moman assembled a great team of studio musicians to back them up. This was a period when all four singers were unsure of their place in music history. They weren’t receiving the accolades they would in future years. It had been four years since any of them had been in the country Top 40. Carl Perkins reached No. 31 on the Billboard Top Country Songs chart with “Birth of Rock and Roll.” It was his first appearance in the Top 40 since 1969.
The album finale was on “Big Train (From Memphis)” with an ensemble including Rick Nelson, The Judds, Dave Edmunds, June Carter Cash, Ace Cannon, Marty Stuart, and the song’s writer, John Fogerty.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
