ON December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash found themselves in the same Sun Records recording studio at the same time – their Million Dollar Quartet jam session was a highlight in the history of rock and roll.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That jam, and music from the era, form the basis of the Sun Records All-Stars show to play at Albury’s Commercial Club on Saturday, February 6.
"We do a whole set of the Million Dollar Quartet which looks at the jam session that they had in December 1956 at Sun Records,” says All-Stars’ Bill Culp, who plays Carl Perkins.
"So it's neat seeing how the artists in the show combine, because that's what they did, and in Million Dollar Quartet you can hear it.
"We do songs together. We don't just have Elvis (Gino Monopoli) perform a song, we might have Johnny Cash (Roy LeBlanc) perform a song with Carl or Jerry Lee (Joe Passion) does it with Elvis.
“There's lots of different musical combinations because that's the way they did it.”
The show plays in two parts, with part one featuring the Sun Records’ hits while part two expands to cover their latter careers performing hits from other legendary artists of the 1950s including Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry.
Culp says the show is not just classic rockabilly and rock and roll music, it is storytelling through the eyes of the artists on the music and the evolution of Sun Records, under the leadership of producer Sam Phillips.
Phillips not only nurtured the sound but also the flamboyant costumes.
He insisted his stars should appear on stage in clothes no-one in the audience would have in their cupboard.
"So we do the same thing, I've got a great blue suede suit and everybody comes out in dynamite clothes,” Culp says.
Everybody except the man in black Johnny Cash.
"He was considered strange doing that,” Culp adds.
Culp’s career has spanned several decades, including a stint with Canadian 80s punk band Problem Children.
He has scored several songs on North American radio charts as a solo artist, and also works as a voiceover actor in Hollywood.
“When I was in high school I played in a punk band, what I liked about punk was the energy and I think in a lot of ways it's no different to Sun Records in that same raw energy that they had you can find in punk music,” he says.
"I really see a common thread there, and the punk band was doing some songs from the 50s but it was punk style.”