Search - Million Dollar Quartet :: Complete Session

WARNING: This is not the official BMG release, but a counter

Bill Porter | San Francisco, CA | 08/21/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"A word of a caution for anybody remotely interested in this material. It was just confirmed that BMG will officially release "The Complete Million Dollar Quartet" on Sep.19, 2006. This will feature for the first time ever, the COMPLETE RECORDED SESSION in the ORIGINAL SEQUENCE with 12 more minutes than any other previous release! Stay away from the cheap rehash labels (such as this Charly release), do yourself a favor and seek out the original BMG release when it comes out. The sound quality alone will be superior to anything out there as they've used tapes from Elvis' own archives."

The reviewer above is misinformed

J. Douglas Benson | Maryland | 02/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Though Charly does import some questionable items, this particular release is above-board.



These tapes were recorded in 1956 by Sam Phillips (then owner of Sun Records) just for fun. In 1969, Shelby Singleton bought Sun Records. He began a long search of the Sun catalogue, browsing through more than 10,000 hours of tape. Singleton licensed much, if not all, of the Sun catalogue to the English Charly label for reissue in Europe. As a result of Singleton's and Charly's search of the Sun catalogue, a portion of the session came to light. This was issued in Europe 1981] as "Charly/Sun" LP #1006 The Million Dollar Quartet, and it contained seventeen tracks, almost all of which were gospel/spiritual music.



Several years later, additional material was discovered. This resulted in the release of the 1987 "Charly/Sun" 2 LP set #CDX 20 The Complete Million Dollar Session, together with their simultaneous issue in CD format in Europe. In 1990, they were replicated by RCA for US distribution as a CD, titled, Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet (RCA CD # 2023-2-R), the sleeve notes of which were written by Colin Escott of Showtime Music, Toronto. A 2006 50th anniversary issue of the session was released on RCA, containing approximately twelve minutes of previously unavailable material and places the titles in the original recorded sequence. The source of the recording was a copy of the session owned by Elvis Presley.



So... the flame throwing above is pretty unfair. Actually, the BMG release is for the most part derived from the Charly set!!







"