The album The Million Dollar Quartet was not released until 1981 due to contractural difficulties. The legendary recording session for this album however took place on December 4th, 1956 at Sun Records' studio in Memphis, where Carl Perkins and his band were recording. Presley who had transferred from Sun to RCA a year earlier, was in town, and dropped in on Perkins' session. They were joined by Johnny Cash and the then still relatively unknown Jerry Lee Lewis. The four spent the afternoon singing traditional gospel songs and current juke box hits. Twenty-five years later Sam Phillips recalled that this occasion was ...probably the highlight of my life...having all of them in the same studio singing and playing together. The atmosphere that afternoon was of an old time revival meeting - just the four boys fooling around and having fun together. Even though by this time Elvis was the biggest star of the four..he just loved to bounce things off Carl, Jerry Lee and Johnny and, in turn, they did the same to him, especially Jerry Lee...their voices sounded so good together...there was this feeling of artistic freedom in the studio that afternoon, purely as a result of their mutual respect for one another's talent. They may have only been making some impromptu music together, but the only way I can best describe what was happening is to liken it to a spiritual awakening. Had this been a properly arranged session, with all the material selected beforehand and rehearsed, then there's no doubt that it would have produced something so remarkable as to never be equalled".

Although one of Presley's two signatures on the label in this lot post-dates the actual recording session (ie. it's dated 1957) - this set of signatures is believed to be the only known example of The Million Dollar Quartet's autographs. According to the vendor the Marion in one of Elvis' inscriptions is Marion Keisker, Sam Phillips' assistant at Sun who initially recognized Presley's potential when in 1953, Presley who then worked as a truck driver, stopped at the Memphis Recording Service in order to make a one-off disc, as a gift for his mother's birthday.