Million Dollar Band (country music group)

The Million Dollar Band was an all-star group of popular country musicians which often performed on the Hee Haw

Hee Haw

Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...

television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

variety show

Variety show

A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

from August 1980 through November 1988. (pictured here)

The group's members included Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

, Boots Randolph

Boots Randolph

Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"...

, Roy Clark

Roy Clark

Roy Linwood Clark is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre...

, Floyd Cramer

Floyd Cramer

Floyd Cramer was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville sound." He popularized the "slip note" piano style where an out-of-tune note slides effortlessly into the correct note...

, Charlie McCoy

Charlie McCoy

Charles "Charlie" Ray McCoy is an American musician noted for his harmonica playing. In his career, McCoy has backed several notable musicians including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Astor, Elvis Presley and Ween. He has also recorded thirty-seven studio albums, including fourteen for Monument Records...

, Danny Davis

Danny Davis (country musician)

Danny Davis was a band leader, trumpet player, vocalist and producer and founder/leader of the Nashville Brass.-Early life and career:...

, Jethro Burns and Johnny Gimble

Johnny Gimble

John Paul Gimble , better known as Johnny Gimble, is an American country musician associated with Western swing. He is an award-winning fiddle player and considered one of the most impressive fiddlers in the genre's history....

. All members of the group except Clark, McCoy, and Gimble are now deceased.

Its name was a play on words, referencing the 1956 jam-session Sun Records

Sun Records

Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...

impromptu group known as "The Million Dollar Quartet

Million Dollar Quartet

"Million Dollar Quartet" is the name given to recordings made on Tuesday December 4, 1956 in the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were of an impromptu jam session among Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. It was arguably the first...

", which included Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

and Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins

Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

Instrumentation

Guitar: Chet Atkins, Roy Clark
Mandolin: Jethro Burns
Fiddle: Johnny Gimble
Saxophone: Boots Randolph
Piano: Floyd Cramer
Harmonica: Charlie McCoy
Trumpet: Danny Davis

Performance dates

The group performed on the following 27 Hee Haw episodes:

Hee Haw season 13

Episode 287, 08-13-1980
Episode 290, 10-04-1980
Episode 293, 10-25-1980
Episode 296, 10-18-1980
Episode 299, 12-06-1980
Episode 303, 01-17-1981
Episode 309, 02-28-1981
Episode 312, 03-21-1981

Hee Haw season 14

Episode 314, 09-19-1981
Episode 317, 10-10-1981
Episode 320, 10-31-1981
Episode 326, 10-12-1981
Episode 330, 01-23-1982

Hee Haw season 15

Episode 340, 09-18-1982
Episode 349, 11-20-1982
Episode 353, 12-18-1982
Episode 356, 01-22-1983
Episode 363, 03-12-1983

Hee Haw season 16

Episode 374, 11-26-1983
Episode 386, 02-25-1984
Episode 390, 03-24-1984

Hee Haw season 17

Episode 391, 09-22-1984
Episode 396, 10-27-1984
Episode 402, 12-08-1984
Episode 406, 01-05-1985

Hee Haw season 18

Episode 438, 02-15-1986

Hee Haw season 21

Episode 503, 11-26-1988

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.