The film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was written by Academy-Award-winning screenwriter George Wells, directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Jack Cummings.

The third in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers, it was preceded by Till the Clouds Roll By (Jerome Kern, 1946) and Words and Music (Rodgers and Hart, 1948) and followed by Deep in My Heart (Sigmund Romberg, 1954).

"Three Little Words" takes fewer liberties with the facts than many Hollywood biopics, and Astaire and Skelton's portrayal of the songwriting partnership is considered psychologically accurate.

This film provides an object lesson in how to integrate numerous songs and dances seamlessly and naturally into the script, a principle Astaire introduced as far back as 1934.

The spirit of the partnered dances expands on the theme of marital contentment previously explored in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) and the prior year's The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).