In addition, the original rock and roll spirit would be celebrated in the next few years in films like American Graffiti and in television shows like Happy Days.

The album is best known for its version of "Chantilly Lace," which had been written by J.P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, who perished in a plane crash with Buddy Holly in 1959.

And, as always, Jerry Lee started changin' keys, and the arranger was goin' crazy, havin' to rewrite stuff for the string section..."[2] According to Rick Bragg's authorized biography Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, the conductor of the string section was astonished when Lewis informed him what he had thought was just a rehearsal would be the one and only take.

In the liner notes to the 1995 Mercury compilation Killer Country, Colin Escott marvels that Lewis "destroyed the essence of the song, but - at the same time - created a new one."

Despite producer Jerry Kennedy sweetening the sound with increasing "countrypolitan" accoutrements, Lewis storms through Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel," Charlie Rich's "Lonely Weekends," and Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'."