Jerry Lee Lewis re-recorded his songs for this film, which Dennis Quaid lip-syncs. At first, Quaid wanted to record his version of the songs over Lewis' objections, and did. Lewis was surprised at how good he was, and at one point it was proposed that Lewis do half the songs and Quaid half. When Quaid heard the new re-recordings done by Lewis, he changed his mind, and agreed that all the songs should be done by Lewis.
Dennis Quaid did some of his own piano playing. Pianist and singer Jason D. Williams, often compared to Jerry Lee Lewis in looks and musical performance, also served as Quaid's piano double. The filmmakers used Williams' hands for the piano parts in the film. Williams also found himself teaching Quaid how to play a few parts, which Quaid quickly picked up. At the time of filming, Quaid had played the guitar for twenty years, but had only played the piano for two years.
Murray Silver Jr. and Myra Lewis sold the film rights to the book for $115,000 plus a share of the profits. The two were supposed to serve as script consultants, but after the rights were sold three times, director Jim McBride and producer Adam Fields decided to put some distance between the film crew and their real-life counterparts.
Jerry Lee Lewis hated both this film and Myra Lewis' autobiography, which was a source. Linda Gail Lewis, Jerry's sister, also thought this film was a poor and unjustified version of the real Jerry. The book's co-author Murray Silver Jr. was outraged by the film, which he thought departed from the book or the truth, calling it "phony". Director Jim McBride said, "This movie does not represent itself in any way to be a historical documentary. We use the book as a jumping-off point."
The song "Great Balls of Fire" in the soundtrack has an extra, extended piano solo which builds up to a vocal climax missing from the original Sun record version.