Elvis Presley refused to watch this movie because of Judy Tyler's tragic death in a car accident in Wyoming on July 3, 1957, three days after filming was completed.

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote four songs ("Jailhouse Rock", "I Want to Be Free", "Treat Me Nice", and "You're So Square") in five hours after their music publisher, under deadline, locked them in their hotel room.

Judy Tyler never saw the premiere of this movie; she was killed in a traffic accident in Wyoming on July 3, 1957, only three days after the film was completed. It was released theatrically on November 8, 1957.

Elvis Presley's band in the film is his real-life band, including Scotty Moore on electric guitar and Bill Black on stand-up bass. Both had been with Presley since his beginning in Memphis at Sun Records (owned by Sam Phillips). In the recording studio scenes, the piano player is Mike Stoller of the Lieber (Jerry Leiber) and Stoller songwriting team, which wrote many of the major-hit rock songs of the 1950s.

Originally choreographer Alex Romero created a dance for the song "Jailhouse Rock" that was in a style more apropos for a classically trained dancer than Elvis Presley. When Romero realized that his plans for the number were never going to work, he asked Presley how he would normally move to the song, leading Elvis to become the uncredited choreographer for what many consider the most famous dance number in all his movies.

Continuity

In the outdoor pool scene for "You're So Square", guitarist Scotty Moore wore sunglasses in the long shots but no glasses in the medium shots.

In one scene, Vince's prison uniform displays the number 6239, yet in another it becomes 6240.

Teddy Talbot's shirt changes between shots (most noticeable in the colorized version).

When Peggy and Vince leave the listening booth at the record store, Peggy slapped the record on top of the pile in her hand. In the next shot, the record is no longer visible.

In the recording scene of "Treat Me Nice", Peggy is supposed to clap during the verses, but when the song approaches the end of the verse, she erroneously starts finger snapping. When the song goes to the bridge section, they are supposed to switch to finger-snapping; however, Peggy continues to clap.



Factual errors

When Vince is marking months off the calendar he marks months off on two consecutive years that have the same days of the week. That never happens.



Revealing mistakes

No matter when, where, or under what circumstances, when Vince is singing, he always has the same backup group, so they all must have been serving prison sentences at the same time, been released at the same time, but gotten jobs at the first club before he tries out. They then apparently leave that job, so they can back him up when he cuts his first record.

When Vince and Peggy enter her parents' house, the black "T" tape on the carpet where Elvis Presley has to stand can be seen. (This is more visible in the colorized version.)



Audio/visual unsynchronized

In the first song performed the drums don't match the soundtrack.

When Vince drives off in the 1957 Lincoln, the sound effect is that of a four-cylinder engine.

In several of the songs Elvis Presley sings, his lips don't quite match the words in places. This is because he is lip-syncing to a recording he made earlier.



Character error

Concerning the Laurel Records partnership, Shores mentions that the "40-percent participant failed to telephone the 60-percent partner"; i.e., Peggy failed to telephone Vince. However, Shores is a 9-percent partner in the firm, which left Vince with 51 percent of the company, not 60 percent.