
On December 4, 1956 Tuesday afternoon, Carl Perkins was completing a recording session. Jerry Lee Lewis had been playing piano for him. Johnny Cash called into see how things were turning out. This already formidable trio was joined by Elvis Presley who dropped by to visit his old friends at Sun. Before too long the Million Dollar Quartet" was launched into a jam session. Sun label boss, Sam Phillips, decided to invite the local press along and at some point he also had the tapemachine switched on. What survives on tape is a fascinating and enjoyable flashback to the time when rock and roll was young, when its earliest exponents retained their brash enthusiasm and innocence. Johnny Cash had left by the time these recordings were made but the trio of Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis provide a thoroughly rivetting country music and a into rock and roll. None of these artists yet had a million dollars. They just had a million dollar worth of talent. Johnny Cash was only present for publicity photographs before this session took place, he was not present when the session was recorded (as was previously believed), although the following is what Johnny Cash has to say about this session: "I was there, I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, contrary to what has been written, but I was just there to watch Carl record, which he did until mid-afternoon, when Elvis came in with his girlfriend. At that point the session stopped and we all started laughing and cutting up together. Then Elvis sat down at the piano, and we started singing gospel songs we all knew, then some Bill Monroe songs. Elvis wanted to hear songs Bill had written besides ''Blue Moon Of Kentucky'', and I knew the whole repertoire. So, again contrary to what some people have written, my voice is on the tape. It's not obvious, because I was farthest away from the mic and I was singing a lot higher than I usually did in order to stay in key with Elvis, but I guarantee you, I'm there..". Johnny Cash claims more, there is another tape missing of him with the group. Another tape in poor quality exists of Christmas songs. Since the sound quality is awful its hard to tell who's who is. This 706 Union Avenue Sessions is a non-commercial labor of love and is in no way associated with any commercial activity. All music from own archive and music collections. Use for educational purposes. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Notes on the tracks are written by Stephen Miller, referred to as (SM). Other liner notes are composed from multiple sources. 706 Union Avenue Sessions reserves the right to remove any comments from our site or various social media platforms at any time. Comments featuring hate speech or otherwise threatening or violent content will be deleted. © - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©