Some songs in this movie were sang by Roy Orbison. He was Roy Black's idol, therefore he used his first name in his pseudonym. The 'Black' is cause of his black hair and his nickname in school 'Blacky'.
Some of the Roy Black songs were played from the original records, while some were sang by Christoph Waltz himself.
All videos and pictures in the movie were recreated featuring Christoph Waltz, not the real Roy Black. The performance at the end of the movie (at the RTL Lion Award 1987) was the only footage featuring the real Roy Black. However, on the screen behind him was the video of Christoph Waltz.
Although his performance received lots of acclaim after the release and was the European breakthrough for the then mostly unknown Christoph Waltz, his casting was originally quite controversial. Fans of the real Roy Black deemed Waltz not pretty enough for the part and, according to some tabloid magazines, even started letter writing campaigns to demand a recasting.
In 1997 Christoph Waltz received the Bavarian Movie Award for his portrayal of Roy Black. The award was presented to him by Jutta Speidel. Speidel starred in with the real Roy Black in Alter Kahn und junge Liebe (1973) and Grün ist die Heide (1972).