Jerry Lee Lewis Recording
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, and released as a 45rpm single on Sun 281 in November 1957. It reached #2 on the Billboard pop charts, #3 on the R&B charts, and #1 on the country charts. It also reached #1 on the UK pop charts, 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.
The song title is derived from a Southern expression, which some Christians consider blasphemous, that refers to the Pentecost's defining moment when the Holy Spirit manifested itself as "cloven tongues as of fire" and the Apostles spoke in tongues.
Read more about this topic: Great Balls Of Fire
Famous quotes containing the words jerry, lee, lewis and/or recording:
“Then word goes forth in Formic:
“Death’s come to Jerry McCormic,
Our selfless forager Jerry.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Rap is poetry to music—like beatniks without beards and bongos.”
—David Lee Roth (1955)
“It’s an ideal house for delirium tremens.”
—Dodie Smith, and Lewis Allen. Rick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)