"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.
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, name unknown, 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 isnt it?".
It was released as a 45-rpm single as 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,[7][8] 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 also released in the UK on London Records.