(1956) Sun ''Too Much Monkey Business''/''Brown Eyed Handsome Man'' Million Dollar Quartet

JAM SESSION FOR THE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET
ELVIS PRESLEY, JERRY LEE LEWIS, CARL PERKINS AND JOHNNY CASH
AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVIVE FOR SUN RECORDS 1956

SUN RECORDING STUDIO
706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: DECEMBER 4, 1956 TUESDAY AFTERNOON
SESSION HOURS: CIRCA 1.16:09 MINUTES
PRODUCER - SAM C. PHILLIPS AND/OR MARION KEISKER
RECORDING ENGINEER - JACK CLEMENT
RECORDED ON SCOTCH MAGNETIC TAPE

Recorded for "The Million Dollar Quartet", authentic studio recordings. Session hours circa 1.16:09 minutes with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. RCA Matrix numbers used for release. While Elvis was home in Memphis celebrating Christmas and New Years Eve he dropped in at 706 Union Avenue (the Sun studio) where the three others were present. They all had a nice time talking, singing, and playing for a couple of hours. Sam Phillips turned the tape recorder on and recorded ''The Million Dollar Quartet".

"TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS"/"BROWN EYED HANDSOME MAN" - B.M.I. - 1:18
Composer: - Chuck Berry
Publisher: - Isalee Music Company
Matrix number: - VPA4-5317/18
Recorded: - December 4, 1956
Released: - 1987
First appearance: - S Records (LP) 33rpm S 5001 mono
THE ONE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET
Reissued: - March 1990 RCA BMG (CD) 500/200rpm 74321 13840 2-2021 mono
THE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET

Jerry Lee tries to generate interest in ''Too Much Monkey Business'' but Carl, who says shortly afterwards that he has just ''come off a five-week tour with Chuck Berry'', quickly moves them onto another Chuck Berry song, ''Brown Eyed Handsome Man''. Not long afterwards Elvis responds to a question about ''Too Much Monkey Business'', making it clear he prefers ''Brown Eyed Handsome Man''. He says, ''It's all right but I like this one better''.

They have real fun with the song, stumbling over the words, stopping and starting, and getting some help with the lyrics from one of the women present in the studio. One or possibly more children can be heard in the background adding to the party atmosphere.

Whilst there is no one person who can legitimately claim to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry surely has a strong a claim as any artist alive or dead. It was inevitable that the guys would come across one of his songs sooner or later. Their sheer delight in the irresistible fun qualities of the song is palpable, although they break down several times as they try to get the words right.

Chuck Berry wrote and recorded "Brown-Eyed Handsome Mane" (Chess 1635) produced by Leonard Chess, in 1956. It was the flip side to his "Too Much Monkey Business". Both songs reached number 7 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart.

Despite the light-hearted feel of the song it was inspired by the kind of racial tensions which were all too prevalent in parts of fifties America. It was written by Berry after a visit to California when he had witnessed a Hispanic man being arrested by a policeman in questionable circumstances, an incident which prompted a bystander to intervene on his behalf. One commentator has surmised that the song is subtly challenging racial attitudes in suggesting for instance that the very white and very beautiful Venus de Milo would ''lose both her arms in a wrestling match to win a brown eyed handsome man'' (i.e. a black man). Elvis later said that Chuck Berry told him the song was originally called ''Brown Skinned Handsome Man'' but that, ''They made me change it''.

One point that emerges from the sessions is a clear lack of racial prejudice on the part of members of the quartet, no mean feat at a time when it was so prevalent. Then again, their eclectic taste in and respect for all types of music by black and white artists would surely have made it illogical for them to have held any such views.

In 1969 Waylon Jennings revived the song in a popular country hit (RCA 0281), reaching number 3. Years later, Felton Jarvis recorded a studio jam session in which Elvis sang many Chuck Berry tunes, included "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man". The tape has never been released. A decade before "black is beautiful" achieved radical chic, Chuck communicated that very message with a jittery, ragged guitar line and rapidfire vocal delivery that suggested just how much he risked merely by celebrating the facts. I've always wondered whether that home run hitter in the final verse was Jackie Robinson or Willie Mays, but what really matters is that its the most organic connection any body's ever made between rock and baseball, Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty included. Here, Chuck fakes nothing - except for his substitution of "-eyed" for "-skinned", of course. (SM)

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Elvis Presley - Vocal and Guitar
Jerry Lee Lewis - Vocal
Carl Perkins - Vocal

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©