Elvis, Perkins, Cash and Jerry Lee: One amazing night

NYC -- On Dec. 4, 1956 the cornerstones of rockabilly and rock 'n' roll convened on Memphis' Sun Studios for a legendary jam session.

As the creators of the new Broadway musical, "Million-Dollar Quartet" explained it, this was a relatively spontaneous event during a nominal Carl Perkins session. Sun's owner Sam Phillips helped pull it together.
Jerry Lee Lewis was Perkins' piano player at the time. Elvis Presley, who had recorded for Sun, had jumped to a bigger label. And Johnny Cash was worried about the emergence of this new rock style that threatened to end his career.

In the actual recording session, the quartet mostly sang the music that had influenced them. In a small bit of dramatic license, the musical actually features their greatest hits because that's really what audiences want to hear.

"We took 18 months of Sun Records history and condensed it to one night," they said.

Here's what the creative team had to say about their Best Musical Tony-nominated show:

"We kept it to the raw emotion and the journey these guys were on."
"We wanted to capture one historic moment that featured the of rock 'n' roll."
"You can see their torment. Their preachers said this was the devil's music. They had no education and were suddenly big stars."

"They're actually playing onstage; it's all spontaneous."

-- MKilgore