
“Great Balls of Fire” is a 1957 popular song recorded by 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 sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States and sold over five million copies, making it both one of the best-selling singles in the United States, as well as one of the world’s best-selling singles of all time.
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, name unknown, instead of the usual Sun backups Jimmy Van Eaton (drums) and Roland Janes (guitar).
B-side “You Win Again”
Released November 11, 1957
Recorded October 8, 1957
Studio Sun Studio, Memphis, Tennessee
Genre Rock and roll, rockabilly, country
Length 1:52
Label Sun 281
Songwriter(s) Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer
Producer(s) Sam Phillips