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The Million Dollar Quartet MEMPHIS PRESS-SCIMITAR, Wednesday, December 5, 1956 |
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This article was originally published in the Memphis Press Scimitar on December 5, 1956 and pertinent portions regarding events are reprinted here as written .
article added August 14, 2013 Some article Backstory
On December 4, 1956 Elvis made another impromptu visit to Sam's studio at 706 Union Ave. Having recently returned from Vegas with Marilyn Evans, a dancer from the New Frontier, in tow, they along with Cliff Gleaves happened upon a session with Carl Perkins that was just finishing up. Carl and his brothers Jay and Clayton with “Fluke" Holland on drums had recorded "Matchbox" among the sessions that day and Jerry Lee Lewis, a newcomer to Sun, had played piano on it. Sam, recognizing the publicity potential called Johnny Cash to come down and also the press. What ensued was an informal jam session of what was dubbed by Robert Johnson the next day in the Press-Scimitar as the Million Dollar Quartet though for years it would be debated as to who participated, who was there and for how long. The biggest mystery to some was whether Johnny actually sang, though he's maintained in his biography that he did, and the identity of the girl, Marilyn Evans, who after 1957, was often cropped from several of the more famous photos.
The photos show various of the participants, including Johnny Cash, posing with Charlie Underwood's Martin D-28, that according to Colin Escott was retrieved from the trunk of his car. He wrote that Cash, who had come with his wife Vivian, left almost immediately after the photo session, but Presley, Lewis, and Perkins sang for an hour or two.1 Photographer Jim Reid would later claim he was the one who took the photos though papers of the day say credit it as George Pierce.
Some accounts also differ as to who was actually responsible for the recordings. Peter Guralnick wrote almost from the start Sam had the tape recorder turned on. He was all set up for a session anyway, and he realized immediately that this could be an historic occasion. “I told Jack Clement [who was in the control room. too]. “Man. Let's just record this. This is the type of feel, and probably an occasion, that — who knows? — we may never have these people together again.' 2 Colin Escott wrote, using the microphone placements from the Perkins session, Phillips did a rough mix through the board, punched the RECORD button, then joined the melee on the studio floor.1
More recently Jack Clement was quoted as saying that Sam went next door to Taylor's restaurant. Carl Perkins was in the studio recording, but everything stopped when Elvis came in. Everybody just started swapping stories and picking out songs. And I remember thinking I would be remiss if I didn't record this. So I moved a few mics around and recorded what happened. Nobody paid any attention to the tapes for years and years. It was a long time before the record came out.3 It's not surprising since when Elvis had signed with RCA the year before a clause prohibited him willingly recording any performance outside of their agreement. Sam himself was quoted as saying the event was totally extemporaneous, everything was off mike and if it was on mike it was by accident. The recordings only surfaced after Shelby Singleton bought Sun in 1969 and the catalog was licensed for reissue in Europe. It has been available on record at least as early as 1981 and has been re-mastered and re-released several times since, the most recent being for the 50th anniversary in 2006.
Several years ago Escott co-wrote the musical, The Million Dollar Quartet, for Broadway. Unable to locate Marilyn Evans, her character's name was changed for legal reasons. When the play hit Chicago in 2008 the Tribune ran the story and Marilyn, now Marilyn Knowles-Riehl, saw it and contacted the Tribune. She explained that though she enjoyed the experience she was not a fan of the music and kept silent about it because she never sought the limelight. She had never heard the recordings until then and at least clarified the question as to whether she was the one on record requesting the song Farther Along. She wasn't. She did however recognize her voice as requesting End of the Road.4
As Colin Escott pointed out, the tapes from the "session" hold some of Elvis’ least-guarded moments on record. With the exception of a few stage-managed moments during the 1968 NBC-TV Special, the session represents the only time we catch Elvis talking unguardedly about music.1 According to one reviewer the musical makes it seem like there was a lot of rivalry between Johnny, Carl, Elvis, and Jerry Lee, but it doesn't come through on the recordings. Clement confirmed, it was all camaraderie. They were having a ball talking, jamming, and throwing songs at each other. They were all very warm toward each other.4 Obviously at ease, and at home, Elvis described seeing Billy Ward and his Dominoes four nights in a row while in Las Vegas and being floored by the singer [Jackie Wilson] and his rendition of Don't Be Cruel. He thought it was better than his own recording of the song written by Otis Blackwell and released the previous July.1
Throughout the session people drifted in and out, the guitar is passed around, while Snearly Ranch Boys piano player and sometime session musician Smokey Joe Baugh contributes his gravelly comments and harmonies. You can hear comments by unidentified women and children, doors slamming, and musicians departing (the Perkins brothers exit fairly early in the proceedings), which leaves a clear Field for singers and piano pickers almost exclusively.2
Afterwards, Sam copied Johnson's review of the occasion in the Press-Scimitar and distributed it as a note to deejays acknowledging their contributions for the popularity of the artists mentioned.2 The review however was only about half of Johnson's column that day which also contained elements of other coincidences and relevance in Elvis' history. Johnson mentioned Billy Boren, a local singer also from Tupelo who was to appear on the the Ted Mack show that evening and encouraged his readers to watch.
As Johnson mentioned, Billy was the younger brother of Charles Boren who at the time ran WAMY radio in Amory, Mississippi where just about a year earlier he promoted a show at the Armory that featured Elvis, Carl and Johnny. Prior to that he had been an announcer at WELO in Tupelo since 1945. It was station WELO that sponsored the contest at the fair on October 3, 1945 that Elvis sang Ol' Shep, a song Boren recommend Elvis not sing. He went home with 5th place.2
They also used to host a Jamboree on Saturday afternoons at the station on Spring street where Elvis, and anyone else that wanted to, would sing on the radio, at times at Boren's insistence, accompanied on guitar by Carbell Lee (Mississippi Slim) Ausborn. Ausborn had a Saturday noon-time show of his own called Singin' and Pickin' Hillbilly that preceded the Jamboree and coincidentally was the cousin of Rod Brasfield, a country comedian who years later would tour on package shows with Elvis, Scotty, Bill and DJ.2
Billy, originally from Verona, MS where Elvis' parents were married by a Justice of the Peace, graduated Tupelo High School in 1956 and had won the Youth talent contest at the Mid-South fair in Memphis in 1955. He is also a close friend of Anita Wood who had won the same contest in 1954. In September of 1956 they performed together at the Overton Park Shell in Memphis where Elvis, Scotty and Bill had debuted two years earlier. Anita, as most fans are aware began dating Elvis in 1957. Both Anita and Billy had hopes and made attempts at performing careers. She had a record on the ABC-Paramount label and made television appearances on the Andy Williams show and Jack Paar show.5
Initially he followed his brother Charlie into radio becoming a staff member at WTUP in Tupelo, at the time the sister station to WELO, but opted for a professional career as an entertainer. Billy became a three-time winner of the Ted Mack show. In 1959 he emceed a show at the Shell in Memphis that featured many of the current and former Mid-South Fair talent contest winners including Anita and himself. He went on to work the night club circuit performing in Chicago, Miami, the west and even the Rebel Room at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, often working with big name stars like Joey Bishop and Gloria DeHaven.5
Though he released a record on a local label to regional acclaim and was reviewed favorably, a record deal with a major label apparently remained elusive. Regardless, he continued to perform and work in entertainment for most of his life, as a circus ring master and also doing public relations and promotion work. Back in Verona, he married and raised a family, several of which inherited his singing talents and in the '80s they would at times perform as a unit.5 He now resides back in Verona, and I'm told, still sings.
As for the Million Dollar Quartet, Jerry Lee is now the last "man" standing. That story has been told in much more detail elsewhere and the musical is still having a successful run.
section added September 10, 2013
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All photos on this site (that we didn't borrow) unless otherwise indicated are the property of either Scotty Moore or James V. Roy and unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited. |
