Additional information
by Stephen Miller (Author)
Million Dollar Quartet is the name given to recordings made on Tuesday December 4, 1956 in the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were of an impromptu jam session among Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.
This thorough account of the session includes:
- The events of the session. Very few participants survive.
- Includes interviews with the drummer and the sound engineer.
- A detailed analysis of the music played - and its relevance to subsequent popular music.
- The early lives and careers of the quartet - where they were in 1956.
- Relevant social and economic factors which meant that a massive audience of young people were keenly looking for a new kind of music they could call their own.
- The "reunions" of surviving members of the quartet.
- The emergence of the tapes, first on bootleg and then on legitimate CDs.
- The genesis of the stage show and its reception - the enduring appeal of the music.
Author Biography
Stephen Miller has had a lifelong interest in popular music in general and country music in particular. He was a regular contributor to Scot Country, a radio show broadcast from Edinburgh. He has written biographies of Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Kris Kristofferson (all published by Omnibus Press). He has recently been involved in the production of programmes relating to country music on BBC Radio 4: Married with four grown up children, Stephen Miller divides his time between Edinburgh and Nice.
