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The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, are an American rock and roll group. The Fireballs were particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The original 1958 lineup: George Tomsco (lead guitar), Chuck Tharp (vocals), Stan Lark (bass), Eric Budd (drums), and Dan Trammell (rhythm guitar).
The Fireballs were formed in Raton, New Mexico. The Fireballs got their start as an instrumental group, featuring the very distinctive lead guitar of George Tomsco. They recorded at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, where Buddy Holly had previously launched his career. They reached the Top 40 with the singles "Torquay" in 1959 and "Bulldog" in 1960. Tharp, Budd & Trammell left the group in the early '60s, adding Doug Roberts on drums, plus Petty Studio solo vocalist, singer/pianist Jimmy Gilmer to the group.
Billed as Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs, the group reached #1 on the Billboard chart with "Sugar Shack", which remained at that position for five weeks in 1963. The single also reached #1 on Billboard's R&B chart for one week in November of that year, but its run on that chart was cut short because Billboard ceased publishing an R&B chart from November 30, 1963 to January 23, 1965. Nonetheless, "Sugar Shack" earned the group a Gold Record Award for "Top Song Of 1963". Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs then had another pop hit in 1964 with a similar sounding "Daisy Petal Pickin'", which reached #15 on the Hot 100.
During the run of "Daisy Petal Pickin'" on the charts, the British Invasion began with the first hits by The Beatles. The group had difficulty competing with the influx of British artists and did not reach the Top 40 again until 1968, with "Bottle of Wine," which was written by Tom Paxton. The Fireballs took "Bottle of Wine" to #9 on the Hot 100. Although Gilmer was still a member of the group, the band was billed simply as "The Fireballs" on that single.[1] Gilmer left the group in 1969 to pursue artist management and record production in Nashville. Drummer Doug Roberts passed away in 1981.
All of The Fireballs material has been reissued on Ace Records (UK) and Sundazed labels. The Fireballs continued performing with original members George Tomsco, Stan Lark & Chuck Tharp until Tharp passed away of cancer in 2006. Jimmy Gilmer has returned occasionally as lead vocalist and this lineup continues to perform, as of 2007.
The story of Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs is somewhat confusing, in that the Gilmer-fronted lineup was identical to the one that played on records simply credited to the Fireballs (see separate entry). The New Mexico band had several instrumental hits in the late '50s and early '60s in a slick Tex-Mex style, with staccato guitar lines that prefigured surf music. Using the same producer as Buddy Holly (Norman Petty), the group also performed controversial overdubs that were added to some of Holly's posthumously released material. Again following the lead of Holly and the Crickets, in the mid-'60s they recorded some singles credited to Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs. These were distinguished from most other Fireballs records in that they were vocal numbers, not instrumental, Gilmer (who was second guitarist in the Fireballs) being the lead singer.
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs had a monster number one single in late 1963 with "Sugar Shack," a light pop/rocker dominated by the vibrating sound of a primitive precursor to the synthesizer, the Solovox. The song was singled out for special venom by Greil Marcus in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, who called it "the worst excuse for itself rock and roll had yet produced." The public disagreed, sending it to number one; surprisingly, it also topped the R&B charts.
Gilmer and band made the Top 20 one more time with "Daisy Petal Pickin'," a transparent "Sugar Shack" soundalike, right down to the Solovox. They cut various flops for Dot in the mid-'60s, and Gilmer recorded a Buddy Holly tribute album on his own. Signing to Atlantic in 1967, the Fireballs had another Top Ten hit with Tom Paxton's "Bottle of Wine," without giving top billing to Gilmer, although he was still in the band. Gilmer left the Fireballs shortly afterwards, though, and the Fireballs saga petered out after a few other low-charting singles in the late '60s.
The Fireballs:
This New Mexican group was the primary exponent of the Tex-Mex sound in the instrumental rock & roll of the late '50s and early '60s, landing three Top 40 hits, "Torquay," "Bulldog," and "Quite a Party." Paced by the clean, economic guitar lines of George Tomsco, their moody, laconic arrangements and dextrous picking was similar in essential respects to the Ventures. The Fireballs, who used the same Norman Petty-run studio in Clovis, NM, as Buddy Holly, had a much more prominent "border" music feel to their melodies than the Ventures. The Ventures, on the other hand, had a much more full-bodied and versatile attack, accounting to a large degree for the Fireballs' comparatively slight place in history.
The Fireballs, who occasionally sang on their recordings, are actually much more famous for their controversial contributions to the Buddy Holly legacy. In the early '60s, in association with Petty (Holly's former producer and manager), they overdubbed some of Holly's demo tapes for posthumous release. Some Holly fans claim that these performances should have been left to stand as they were; Petty, and others, have claimed (dubiously) that they were only salvageable for commercial release via such overdubs.
In 1963, the Fireballs hooked up with singer Jimmy Gilmer. As Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs, they had one of the biggest hits of 1963 with a number-one smash lightweight-pop ditty, "Sugar Shack." A similar follow-up, "Daisy Petal Pickin'," made the Top 20, but the British Invasion wiped them out immediately. The Fireballs, sans Gilmer, made one last unexpected comeback in 1968, when their "Bottle of Wine" (featuring vocals by the group themselves) made the Top Ten.
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