The album was the first that Deep Purple worked on after establishing their career with In Rock, which had been a critical and commercial success, staying on the charts for over a year.

[8] Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore felt he had been vindicated by the decision to concentrate on hard rock, and believed the group's success was largely because of him.

[7] As with the previous album, sessions for the follow-up to In Rock were booked in the space of many months in between the bands touring commitments.

"Strange Kind of Woman", "I'm Alone" and "The Mule" were written during these sessions, and recorded in January 1971,[11] with the first two coupled together as Deep Purple's next single in February, to keep the band in the public eye while the album was still being worked on.

[14] "Strange Kind of Woman" was added to the group's live set at the end of January, quickly developing into a showpiece for Gillan to sing back Blackmore's guitar riffs in a call and response manner.

As a result, "Demon's Eye" could not make the final tracklist there, with the label opting to include "Strange Kind Of Woman" instead.

[20] The original UK version had "Demon's Eye" as its third track, but did not include "Strange Kind of Woman", which was instead released as a single there.

The gold CD contained the original USA track listing with "Strange Kind of Woman" and does not have "Demon's Eye".

Lord did praise several songs on the album, including "No No No" and "Fools", and particularly singled out Ian Paice's drumming on the title track.

[24] On 9 April 2011 episode of That Metal Show, guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen stated that his older sister had given him Fireball when he was eight years old, and "it changed everything" for him.

[25] Likewise, Michael Monroe stated on Eddie Trunk's podcast that it was the first album he ever bought, and one of the first he ever heard along with Led Zeppelin II, and was a major influence to get him into a career in rock and roll.

King Diamond also mentions Fireball as the first studio album he purchased as a teenager and an important influence in his future career.