
Sun Sounds: “Great Balls Of Fire”- Jerry Lee Lewis. I just missed the 1950’s- I wasn’t there but it has a reputation as a conservative time in the United States. Yet with Rock N Roll- Elvis was surely outrageous – and well- I don’t know who was off the rails more- Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis- certainly those two had to seem like aliens from outer space to a lot of Americans at the time. In the late 50’s who would have thought the last man standing out of the great 50’s rock n rollers would be Jerry Lee?
“Great Balls Of Fire” in 1957 went to #2 on the Billboard Pop Chart and #1 on the Country Singles Chart. While I would give “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” the edge over “Great Balls Of Fire” as Jerry Lee’s greatest hit- they both are certainly rock n roll classics- “Great Balls of Fire” sold a million copies within its first ten days of release and 5 million overall- this was in the 1950’s. “Great Balls Of Fire” was listed by Rolling Stone at #96 on their 500 Greatest Songs Ever list {“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” was #61} Sam Phillips recorded “Great Balls of Fire” at Sun Studio in Memphis in October 1957.
A side note- if you want to see a truly awful movie- and a textbook case of overacting- see Dennis Quaid as The Killer- in the 1989 movie “Great Balls of Fire”- its so terrible its worth watching. My brother and I went and saw it opening night at the theaters- and we were the only ones in the theater. The review that best describes Quaid playing Lewis-a grinning simpleton with a crazy streak. I haven’t seen it in over 30 years I need to find a copy to see how well it ‘holds up.”
Jerry Lee referred to that film as “Great bunch of balls,’ by the way. He hated that he was portrayed as foolish when he was, in fact, anything but.
It was a cartoonish movie! If I were Jerry Lee I wouldn’t have been happy either.
Great piece Hans. Killer cut by the Killer. I’m not into bio pics even ones that are as good as the one you described.