STAGE TUBE: Cowboy Jack Clement Performs in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET

Yesterday evening, Cowboy Jack Clement took the stage of the Nederlander Theatre to join the cast of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET in the special encore. Cowboy Jack Clement is a legendary songwriter and record producer. On the date of the 1956 Million Dollar Quartet sessions at Sun Records, Jack was the engineer. Without Cowboy Jack, Presley, Cash, Lewis & Perkin's impromptu recording session would never have been documented on tape. Cowboy Jack has worked with such legends as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cliff Richard, Charley Pride, Tom Jones, Dickey Lee, Hank Snow, and Waylon Jennings. Check out the guest performance below!

The cast of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET features Eddie Clendening (Elvis Presley), Lance Guest (Johnny Cash), Jared Mason (Jerry Lee Lewis), Erik Hayden (Carl Perkins), James Moye (Sam Phillips), and Victoria Matlock (Dyanne).

On December 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley together. The place was Sun Records' storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was Sam Phillips, the "Father of Rock and Roll," who discovered them all. The four young musicians united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording that has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time.

Inspired by the actual event, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET features a treasure trove of the greatest rock and roll, gospel, R&B and country hits from these musicians, including such iconic songs as "Blue Suede Shoes," "Fever," "Sixteen Tons," "Who Do You Love?," "Great Balls of Fire," "Riders in the Sky," "I Walk the Line," "Folsom Prison Blues," and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET captures the infectious spirit, freewheeling excitement and thrilling sounds of a singular moment when four of the music industry's most extraordinary talents, all in their creative prime, came together for one of the most memorable nights in music history.

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET won a Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award and received Tony nominations for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical (Colin Escott & Floyd Mutrux), a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Musical Revue and three Drama League nominations including Distinguished Production of a Musical and Distinguished Performance (Lance Guest).

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is directed by Eric Schaeffer and features a book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux. The design team for Broadway includes: Derek McLane (scenic design), Howell Binkley (lighting design), Jane Greenwood (costume design), Kai Harada (sound design) and Chuck Mead (musical arrangements and supervision).

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is produced by Relevant Theatricals, John Cossette Productions, American Pop Anthology, Broadway Across America, and James L. Nederlander.

The Chicago production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET opened in 2008 and is still playing to packed houses at the Apollo Theatre. An upcoming national tour will launch next season and a London production is playing at the Noël Coward Theatre.

For more information about MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, visit www.MillionDollarQuartetLive.com.

Follow MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET news on Twitter @milliondquartet and on Facebook.

TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets for MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET are available online www.TicketMaster.com, by calling 877-250-2929, or by visiting the Nederlander Box Office (208 West 41st Street).

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET's performance schedule is Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 PM, Thursday through Saturday at 8 PM. Matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30 PM and Sunday at 3 PM.

Jack Henderson Clement (born April 5, 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, songwriter, and a record and film producer. Raised and educated in Memphis, Jack Clement was performing at an early age. In 1953, he made his first record for the Sheraton label in Boston, Massachusetts but did not immediately pursue a full time career in music, instead choosing to study at Memphis State University from 1953 to 1955. Nicknamed ‘Cowboy' Jack Clement, during his student days he played steel guitar with a local band, and in 1956 became part of one of the seminal events in rock and roll history when he went to work as a producer and engineer for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. There, Clement worked with future stars such as Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. But most importantly, he discovered and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis while Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida (one of those recordings, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," was selected in 2005 for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress). In 1957, Clement wrote the song "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" that became a crossover hit for Johnny Cash. Other Cash hits written by Clement included "Guess Things Happen That Way", which was # 1 country and # 11 pop in 1958, and the humorous "The One on the Right Is on the Left," which was a # 2 country and # 46 pop hit in 1966. Clement performed "Guess Things Happen That Way" on the Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute show on CMT in November 2003. In 1959, Clement accepted an offer to work as a producer at RCA in Nashville, then the most important label in the industry. Clement went on to become a significant figure in the Nashville music business, establishing a publishing business, and his own recording studio, making records for stars such as Charley Pride and Ray Stevens. In 1971, he co-founded the J-M-I Record Company.

Jack Clement wrote a number of highly successful songs that have been recorded by singing stars such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cliff Richard, Charley Pride, Tom Jones, Dickey Lee and Hank Snow. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973. He also produced albums by Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings.

Clement was involved in a few film projects as a singer or songwriter on soundtracks, and produced the 1975 horror film Dear Dead Delilah that marked the last film performance by actress Agnes Moorehead.

In 1987 Clement was approached by U2 to record at legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. He had never heard of U2 but took the session based on the urging of someone else in his office. The result was a portion of the U2 album Rattle and Hum ("When Love Came To Town" with BB King, "Angel of Harlem" about Billie Holiday, and "Love Rescue Me" with backing vocals by Bob Dylan), as well as the Woody Guthrie song "Jesus Christ," which appeared on 1988's "Folkways: A Vision Shared-A Tribute to Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly. Portions of the 2 sessions also appear in the film Rattle and Hum. In 2005, a documentary on Clement entitled Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan was created by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, pieced together from Clement's home videos and interviews with peers, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Bono. Clement currently hosts a weekly program on Sirius Satellite Radio's "Outlaw country" (channel 63) from 2PM to 6PM (Eastern) on Saturdays. Jack Clement has been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Music City Walk of Fame.