Either way, the quartet ended up recording the Gospel tunes that they had all grown up on, which was somewhat of an irony considering that they were all practitioners of rock 'n' roll, a form of music that some people considered Satanic in that era. But it's not that everything was hunky-dory. Shankar tells us, "There was a certain amount of tension in the room, because Perkins had earlier launched Blue suede shoes and was supposed to perform it on live television at the Perry Como Show. But he met with an injury and was hospitalised. And lying on his bed, he saw Elvis perform the track on the Ed Sullivan Show, which made many people think that it was his song, and not Perkin's. Cash had also tried avoiding Phillips since he had decided to move on to RCA Records because Phillips hadn't warmed up to the gospel tracks he was keen to record. And Perkins, too, had decided to shift to Columbia Records since he wasn't happy with the direction his career was taking. But he didn't have the guts to tell Phillips that."

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(From left) Peter Duncan, Matthew Wycliffe, Ross William Wild, Katie Ray, Phillip Murray Warson and Robbie Durham from the cast and crew

Regardless of all that, the musicians kept their differences aside and sang together, with some of those tracks making their way to the musical. There are also other hits that will be performed on stage, including Great balls of fire, Walk the line and Long tall Sally. These are some of the greatest rock 'n' roll tracks of all time, and Shankar tells us that the musical helps people reconnect with that type of music in an age when electronic sounds have seeped into the popular consciousness. He says, "When we first brought this show to India in 2017, we had a whole bunch of kids in the audience who had never even heard of Elvis, forget about Johnny Cash or Jerry Lee Lewis. But even they had so much fun that some of them returned for the musical with their parents. Then there are people who grew up listening to these songs, and others who were born in that era, but didn't listen to the music much. So there is a lot of emotional connect with the tracks since this really is true music, and not just some DJ spinning some tracks."

ON March 6, 7 and 8, 3 pm and 7 pm
AT Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point.
Log on to bookmyshow.com
Cost Rs 1,180

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