On December 4, 1956 Carl Perkins was recording at Sun Studios when a few of his famous buddies stopped by.
Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records, invited his most recent signing, Jerry Lee Lewis, to play piano on Perkins' sessions, and later that day Elvis Presley with girlfriend Marilyn Evans and Johnny Cash dropped in on the recordings.
At some point, Elvis left the control room, entered the studio, sat at the piano and eventually a jam session began. "Cowboy" Jack Clement, who was engineering, recorded at least four songs, while Sam Phillips saw an opportunity for some publicity and called the local newspaper, Memphis Press-Scimitar.
The next day, an article was published under the title "Million Dollar Quartet" accompanied by the famous photograph of Elvis seated at the piano surrounded by Lewis, Perkins and Cash. The uncropped version of the photo below includes Marilyn Evans, sitting atop the piano.
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/million-dollar-quartet/
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