Customer Reviews

The Complete Million Dollar Quartet

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Stunning sound quality makes this disc a must for all Elvis fans. This material simply never sounded better (due to new tapes they found) and in addition is complete and in the correct sequence.

Just want to agree with the previous reviewer. Although this session has been released many times before, this version is complete and in very good quality. it's worth the price just to hear Elvis talking on the Don't Be Cruel track about a fellow singers approach to that song - magic!

I'm a Keyboard Player and a 33 year Musician, and an Elvis fan! A devoted follower of Jerry Lew Lewis and ALL the Sun Family. Sam Philips was smart enough to put an open mic in the room when this Jam Session happened. Elvis sings like he's in church on Sunday morning, wit so much feeling. Jerry Lee can't be lost no matter how many times Elvis switches songs. He grew up the same way.Carl Perkins thumbstyles that Guitar like the Lead Man he was! They stop and start, like it was all for fun (which it was). No formed up songs, no perfect clean things, Just raw gospel and country with a Rockabilly flair. I swear I didn't know these tapes existed, and I'm a music history idiot. Thank you for selling them amazon!! Any Elvis fan needs this one!! BUY IT!!

This was an excellent review of the past. It brought back a lot of memories. Anyone who is an Elvis Fan will not want to be without it.

Johnny Cash wrote about these recordings in his 1970's autobiography "Man In Black". He thought the recordings were lost, or locked in a vault somewhere. I know that Johnny is on this cd, you can hear him singing bass quite lowly on "Farther Along"(listen closely).

I have the LP of "Million Dollar Quartet" as well, so you can say I am a fan. This CD is longer, and in a better order, and in parts clearer, so for fans is well worth adding. The only place I know to hear Elvis, Jerry Lee, and Carl Perkins together not sure you can hear Johnny Cash and with Sam Phillips gone we cannot ask. Buy it.

I bought this CD after seeing an amazing musical based on this real-life Jam session in Chicago. The musical was fantasic, but somehow I had trouble believing that Johny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis actually hung out one Christmas and played music together in the little studio (once an autoparts store/ garage) where they got there start. Picture yourself and 3 friends enjoying some Holiday cheer and deciding to take out a few instraments and sing. Now imagine that you just happen to be Elvis and your friends are the forefathers of rock and roll. That's pretty much what this is about. And it's not just their well know hits that you're eavesdropping on, but rather a lot of music from their roots. Gospel - church music and of course rock-a -billy. Unpretentious, pre-mega stardom, talent in its early days.

The sound quality is amazingly good considering that the session was secretly recorded back in the 50's.

Worth every penny.

This album is sure to be a disappointment to anyone hoping to hear the four guys all playing on a song at once. That never happens. In fact, i don't believe there's a complete performance of a single song.
This is more like someone left a tape recorder going for an hour while these guys sat around the studio, talking and singing a few songs for each other. Elvis dominates the conversation and does most of the singing.
If you're a musician, it's interesting, because you can hear Elvis, just strumming and singing spirituals, or songs of the day that he particularly likes. Jerry Lee pipes in a few times, and i think i heard Carl Perkins once or twice as well, but never would have guessed Johnny Cash was in the room.
So if you're a fan of any of these guys, hoping to hear them performing together, you will be VERY disappointed. If you're a player, who wants to know how these guys might sound if they were sitting around your living room, then go for it.

To be sure, this was a historic occasion, but there's a lot missing musically. There are a lot of very short tracks containing just a small part of a song; other tracks contain banter but little in the way of singing. As a historical document there is some value to this CD; it demonstrates, for example, the singers' indebtedness to bluegrass music. And Elvis's (partial) renditions of "Don't Be Cruel" are interesting insofar as they are much slower than the commercial release that we are all familiar with. But you won't find full versions of songs on this disk.

I really like the idea of an informal session "accidentally" being recorded. At best, it's a trio. You can't hear Johnny Cash at all (yes, I've heard his explanation). It's mainly Elvis and Carl Perkins at the beginning and then Jerry Lee joins in at the end. Elvis was really hung up on the version of Don't Be Cruel he heard in Vegas. He keeps going back to it. I really like the raw, unrehearsed singing and playing. I think The Colonel overdid his control on Elvis' records. It would have been great to have a reunion before Elvis' death to revisit this session. I also like hearing the Gospel songs. They reveal the soul and inspiration of all 4.