Great Balls of Fire
Single by Jerry Lee Lewis
B-side: "You Win Again"
Released: November 11, 1957
Recorded: October 8, 1957
Studio:
Sun Studio (Memphis, Tennessee)
Genre: Rock and rollrockabilly
Length: 1:52
Label: Sun 281
Songwriter(s):
Otis Blackwell and
Jack Hammer {Jack Hammer?}
Producer(s):
Sam Phillips
"
Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician
Jerry Lee Lewis on
Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie
Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. The song is in AABA form. The song sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States making it one of the best-selling singles in the United States at that time.
Song information
The song is best known for Jerry Lee Lewis's original recording, which was recorded in the Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 8, 1957, using three personnel: Lewis (piano/vocals), Sidney Stokes (bass), and a session drummer, Larry Linn, instead of the usual Sun backups Jimmy Van Eaton (drums) and Roland Janes (guitar). Lewis was quoted in the book
JLL: His Own Story by Rick Bragg, (pg 133), as saying "I knew Sidney Stokes but I didn't know him that well either, and I don't know what happened to them people. That's the last time I ever seen 'em. That's strange isn't it?" It was released as a 45rpm single on Sun 281 in November 1957. It reached No. 2 on the
Billboard pop charts, No. 3 on the R&B charts, and No. 1 on the country charts. It also reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and appeared on the New Zealand Singles Chart and the Dutch Top 40.
The song was featured in a performance by Jerry Lee Lewis and his band in the 1957 Warner Brothers rock and roll film
Jamboree, which also featured Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, Buddy Knox, and Dick Clark. The recording was released in the UK on London Records.
The tune opens up side 2 of Lewis's 1964 album
Live at the Star Club, Hamburg.
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