Million Dollar Band (country Music Group)

Million Dollar Band (country Music Group)

The Million Dollar Band was an all-star group of session musicians that often performed on the Hee Haw television variety show from August 1980 through November 1988. (pictured here)

The group's members included some of Nashville's most well-known virtuosos at their respective instruments: Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Charlie McCoy, Danny Davis, Jethro Burns and Johnny Gimble, along with Hee Haw co-host Roy Clark. Many of them were at one point or another members of The Nashville A-Team, the list of session musicians responsible for creating the famous Nashville Sound. Of the group, only Clark, McCoy (the youngest of the group) and Gimble are still alive as of 2013.

Its name was a play on words, referencing the 1956 jam-session Sun Records impromptu group known as "The Million Dollar Quartet", which included Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. Although the band primarily played instrumental country music, the Million Dollar Band's jam sessions often included influence from jazz, blues, easy listening and other styles that reflected the diverse interests and instruments of the various musicians involved in the project.