Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, And The Common Musical Roots Of A Nation Divided
Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley may represent two distinct paths of American music, but at one point, they had enough in common to share not just a record label, but a historic recording session along with Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
On December 4, 1956, the four met up with nothing in mind except to spend a day in the studio, yet one by one, they came together to put that reunion on tape. Johnny Cash recounted the events in his autobiography.
“Nobody else was booked into the studio. I was there – I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, contrary to what has been written. I was just there to watch Carl record, which he did until mid-afternoon, when Elvis came in with his girlfriend. At that point the session stopped and we all started laughing and cutting up together. Then [Presley] sat down at the piano, and we started singing gospel songs we all knew, then some Bill Monroe songs.”
