Million Dollar Quartet – Segerstrom Center For The Arts (OCPAC), Costa Mesa, CA

A delightful romp that, unlike the fanciful show Tin Pan Alley that theorized a meeting between the legendary Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin, details an actual event where four legends of rock and roll met under the same roof. On December 4th, 1956, Sam Phillips – creator of Sun Records, has coerced and cajoled Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley to “come home” and visit the place where they all got started (or in Lewis’ case where he was about to get started).

So aside from having an evening of chart-topping rock-and-roll hits, you’re also treated to a bit of a history lesson regarding rock ‘n’ roll and how it came about. My knowledge of the events were sketchy at best and influenced mostly by Scot Bruce’s speech about Sun Records during his show and the Johnny Cash biopic Ring Of Fire. But it was absolutely fascinating to here more about Sun – how Sam Phillips built it up from nothing, how he kept giving hillbilly’s the chance of a lifetime to record their music, and how he coaxed and cajoled an extra 10% that they didn’t even know they had out of them.

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