The COMPLETE Million Dollar Quartet CD

On and off Sun Records, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins played an inestimable role in shaping popular music during the Fifties and beyond. But Sun Records was where they found their voice. All four were only in the same place at the same time on one occasion, and it was at Sun's storefront studio in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, during the afternoon of Tuesday, December 4, 1956.

Elvis Presley was home for Christmas. Thirteen months earlier, Sun president Sam Phillips had peddled Elvis' contract to RCA, and invested the proceeds in Cash and Perkins. 1956 had been a year of redemption for them all. Elvis was the most celebrated, vilified, and polarizing personality in American entertainment. One out of every two records that RCA had pressed that year was an Elvis record. Carl Perkins was trying to recapture the success he'd found in the early months of 1956 with "Blue Suede Shoes."

Johnny Cash had given up his job selling home appliances shortly before Christmas 1955, and his early records, like "I Walk the Line," had become pop and country smashes. Jerry Lee Lewis' first record had been out just three days on December 4, 1956, and he was desperate to join the company in which he now found himself He was certain that he would soon eclipse them all.

Sam Phillips was at the controls for a Carl Perkins session during the early afternoon of December 4. Jerry Lee Lewis was the session pianist, trying to earn a little money. Sun's notoriously sloppy record-keeping means that we don't really know what Carl recorded, although "Matchbox" and a "Blue Suede Shoes" sequel, "Put Your Cat Clothes On," seem a good bet. As the session wound down, Elvis appeared with an entourage that included a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans...

Track Listing

1. Instumental
2. Love Me Tender
3. Jingle Bells
4. White Christmas
5. Reconsider Baby
6. Don't Be Cruel
7. Don't Be Cruel
8. Paralyzed
9. Don't Be Cruel
10. There's No Place Like Home
11. When The Saints Go Marchin' In
12. Softly And Tenderly
13. When God Dips His Love In My Heart
14. Just A Little Talk With Jesus
15. Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley
16. I Shall Not Be Moved
17. Peace In The Valley
18. Down By The Riverside
19. I'm With A Crowd But So Alone
20. Farther Along
21. Blessed Jesus (Hold My Hand)
22. On The Jericho Road
23. Just Can't Make It By Myself
24. Little Cabin Home On The Hill
25. Summertime Is Past And Gone
26. I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling
27. Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong
28. Keeper Of The Key (Carl Lead)
29. Crazy Arms
30. Don't Forbid Be
31. Too Much Monkey Business
32. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
33. Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
34. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
35. Don't Forbid Me
36. You Belong To My Heart
37. Is It So Strange
38. That's When Your Heartaches Begin
39. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
40. Rip It Up
41. I'm Gonna Bid My Blues Goodbye
42. Crazy Arms
43. That's My Desire
44. End Of The Road
45. Black Bottom Sheep
46. You're The Only Star In My Blue Heaven
47. (Elvis Says Goodbye)