Million Dollar Quartet

On Dec. 4, 1956, an amazing musical harmonic convergence occurred when four of the giants of early rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly just happened to be in the same Memphis studio at the same time.
Carl Perkins, of “Blue Suede Shoes” fame, was in the Sun Records studio recording some new material. Accompanying him on piano was a young, energetic and still unknown Jerry Lee Lewis.
Johnny Cash, who’d had a recent hit on Sun with “I Walk the Line,” dropped in to hear Perkins. So did a young former Sun recording artist who was by then a star on RCA Records: Elvis Presley.

As often happens when musicians get together around instruments and equipment, they held an impromptu jam session. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips left a tape running and recorded the session. Then he called a reporter from the Memphis Press-Scimitar and had him come to the studio with a photographer.

In the next day’s paper, the headline for the story and accompanying photo of the four musicians read “Million Dollar Quartet.”

Half-a-century later, that session would morph into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical with the same title.  And, if you missed it during it's New York City Broadway run -- IT'S TOURING THE COUNTRY.  And you know what I'm going to say, right??

YES, INDEED -- I was lucky enough to see it for myself.  And it was totally, 100% AMAZING...

Elvis was such a talented singer -- and Johnny Cash -- are you kidding me??

But the guy who stole the show was Jerry Lee Lewis!!

John Countryman played the role of Jerry Lee Lewis -- and his piano playing was SPECTACULAR!!

I went with my niece Amy and her gifted musician son, Cale.  It was a spur of the moment decision (we bought our tickets right before the show).  And we had the BEST TIME...

The Adler Theater -- has been beautifully restored to it's Art Deco glory...

It is right next to the stunning Blackhawk Hotel.

Of course, they are always selling the souvenir t-shirts. I DID manage to resist that..(barely).

Once again -- the BEST things happen to me at the last minute. Without a lot of advance planning. When Amy called the morning of the concert -- I didn't hesitate one little bit. Before she even got the words out of her mouth, I was saying, "count me in -- and THANKS FOR THINKING OF ME..."

So that's my best advice. Anybody invites you anyplace -- JUST DO IT.

And -- hey -- right now, the Million Dollar Quartet is touring all over the country.  Here's the website -- do yourself a favor -- GO BUY A TICKET...