Jimmy Gilmer

The story of <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs</a> is somewhat confusing, in that the Gilmer-fronted lineup was identical to the one that played on records simply credited to <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">the Fireballs</a> (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 <a href="spotify:artist:3wYyutjgII8LJVVOLrGI0D">Buddy Holly</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:5M0cZ39iat2YdgcQX627oq">Norman Petty</a>), the group also performed controversial overdubs that were added to some of <a href="spotify:artist:3wYyutjgII8LJVVOLrGI0D">Holly's</a> posthumously released material. Again following the lead of <a href="spotify:artist:3wYyutjgII8LJVVOLrGI0D">Holly</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4r7JUeiYy24L7BuzCq9EjR">the Crickets</a>, in the mid-'60s they recorded some singles credited to <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs</a>. These were distinguished from most other <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">Fireballs</a> records in that they were vocal numbers, not instrumental, Gilmer (who was second guitarist in <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">the Fireballs</a>) being the lead singer.

<a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs</a> 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 <a href="spotify:artist:3wYyutjgII8LJVVOLrGI0D">Buddy Holly</a> tribute album on his own. Signing to Atlantic in 1967, <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">the Fireballs</a> had another Top Ten hit with <a href="spotify:artist:55kipiKplrHBCZN6L1gtrv">Tom Paxton's</a> "Bottle of Wine," without giving top billing to Gilmer, although he was still in the band. Gilmer left <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">the Fireballs</a> shortly afterwards, though, and <a href="spotify:artist:6Rboxwjnvu3wLcwzhlnaSO">the Fireballs</a> saga petered out after a few other low-charting singles in the late '60s. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi