The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, were an American

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The original line-up consisted of 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 Raton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Colfax County, New Mexico, Colfax County in northeastern New Mexico, United States. The city is located just south of Raton Pass. The city is also located about 6.5 miles south of the New Mexico–Col ...

, in 1957 and got their start as an instrumental group featuring the distinctive lead guitar of George Tomsco. They recorded at

Norman Petty Norman Petty (May 25, 1927 – August 15, 1984) was an American musician, record producer, publisher, and radio station owner. He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of early rock & roll. With Vi Ann Petty—his wife and vocalist—he ...

's studio in

Clovis, New Mexico Clovis is a city in and the county seat of Curry County, New Mexico. The population was 38,567 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Clovis is located in the New Mexico portion of the Llano Estacado, in the eastern part of the state. A ...

. According to group founders Tomsco and Lark, they took their name after their standing ovation performance of

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis m ...

's " Great Balls of Fire", at the Raton High School PTA talent contest in New Mexico, U.S. They reached the

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

with the singles "Torquay" (1959), "Bulldog" (1960), and "Quite a Party" (1961). "Quite a Party" peaked at No. 29 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1961. Tharp, Budd, and Trammell left the group in the early 1960s, but the Fireballs added Doug Roberts on drums, plus Petty Studio singer Jimmy Gilmer (born September 15, 1940, in Chicago and raised in

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County, though most of the southern half of the city extends into Randall County, Texas, Randall County ...

) to the group. Later billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, the group reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard''

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

with "

Sugar Shack "Sugar Shack" is a song written in 1962 by Keith McCormack. McCormack gave songwriting credit to his aunt, Beulah Faye Voss, after asking what are "those tight pants that girls wear" to which she replied "leotards". The song was recorded in 1963 ...

", which remained at that position for five weeks in 1963. The single also reached No. 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 Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

Award for "Top Song Of 1963" based on record sales. In the UK, the song peaked at No. 45. Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs then had another pop hit in 1964 with a similar-sounding "

Daisy Petal Pickin' "Daisy Petal Pickin'" is a song written by Keith McCormack, Glynn Thames, and Juanita Jordan and performed by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. Chart performance It reached #5 in Australia, #11 for 2 weeks in Canada Canada is a coun ...

", which reached No. 15 on the Hot 100. Besides their own recordings, the Fireballs were studio musicians for dozens of other recording artist projects from 1959 through 1970 at the Norman Petty Studio, including folk singer

Carolyn Hester Carolyn Sue Hester (born January 28, 1937) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s American folk music revival. Biography Hester's first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. She made her second a ...

and

Arthur Alexander Arthur Alexander (May 10, 1940 – June 9, 1993) was an American country-soul songwriter and singer. Jason Ankeny, music critic for AllMusic, said Alexander was a "country-soul pioneer" and that, though largely unknown, "his music is the stuf ...

. Norman Petty had been

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...

's main recording producer; after Holly's death, he obtained the rights to Holly's early rehearsal and home demo recordings. From May 1962 until August 1968, Petty had the Fireballs overdub the Holly material, making them the band he never knew he had, though the band had met Holly at Petty's studio in 1958. The overdubs were originally released on four albums of "new" Holly material throughout the 1960s with four of the efforts, released as singles, charting. In 1964, they recorded and released an album (solely under Jimmy Gilmer's name) of a dozen Holly covers called ''

Buddy's Buddy The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, were an American rock and roll group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The original line-up consisted of George Tomsco (lead guitar), Chuck T ...

'', likely inspired by the posthumous collaborations. During the run of "Daisy Petal Pickin'" on the charts, the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when Rock music, rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture became popular in the United States with sign ...

began with the first hits by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

. The group had difficulty competing with the influx of British artists and did not reach the Top 40 again until 1967, with "

Bottle of Wine "Bottle of Wine" is a song written and recorded by Tom Paxton, which was a hit for the band The Fireballs, whose version reached #9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1968 and #5 in Canada. It also reached #3 in South Africa. The song, which inclu ...

", which was written by

Tom Paxton Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

. The Fireballs took "Bottle of Wine" to No. 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. Gilmer pursued artist management under Petty, with the group disbanding in 1969. Drummer Doug Roberts died in 1981. The Fireballs reunited in 1989 for the Clovis Music Festival, then continued performing with original members George Tomsco, Stan Lark, and Chuck Tharp until 2006, when Tharp died of cancer. Gilmer returned as lead vocalist in 2007. Lark retired from the group in 2016. Stan Lark (born Stanley Roy Lark on July 27, 1940, in

) died on August 4, 2021, at age 81 in Amarillo, Texas. Eric Budd (born Eric James Budd on October 23, 1938, in

) died on October 7, 2022, aged 83, in Conway Springs, Kansas. George Tomsco continued to release CDs of new material using The Fireballs name and did the occasional show as a "solo Fireball" and also with Jimmy Gilmer. Their final show together was at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 5, 2022. After suffering from Alzheimer's for two years, Jimmy Gilmer died at the age of 83 in Amarillo, on September 7, 2024, eight days before his 84th birthday.

Discography

Singles

Note: B-sides appear on the same album as the A-sides except where indicated + = Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs
++ = Jimmy Gilmer
* = A-sides re-recorded for album inclusion

Albums

+ = Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs
++ = Jimmy Gilmer

References

External links

* * The Fireballsat Allmusic.com *

Jimmy Gilmer The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, were an American rock and roll group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The original line-up consisted of George Tomsco (lead guitar), Chuck T ...

at Allmusic.com
Jimmy Gilmer Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2017) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fireballs, The American rock and roll music groups Dot Records artists Top Rank Records artists Atco Records artists Rock music groups from New Mexico People from Raton, New Mexico Musical groups established in 1957 Musical groups disestablished in 2022 1957 establishments in New Mexico 2022 disestablishments in New Mexico