Fireballs vocalist Jimmy Gilmer dies at 83

Jay Parmenter, a regular tour guide at the Norman Petty Studio, first met Jimmy Gilmer while leading one of those tours.

“The tour was for about 20 people,” Parmenter said. “I had never met Jimmy and he just looked like every other tourist in that group. He was with his wife.”

Then Parmenter began playing a studio tape that happened to feature Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs.

“He (Gilmer) turned around and said, ‘I still sound good after all these years.’”

Parmenter said suddenly the autograph papers came out. Everyone wanted Gilmer’s.

The man believed to be the most recorded vocalist at Petty’s historic studio on West Seventh Street died Sept. 7, a week short of his 84th birthday.

Parmenter described Gilmer as “very easy to talk to, very approachable.”

“Another time was when we had the studio alumni reunion a few years ago. Musicians and entertainers came from all over the country then. He was there and it was a great time,” Parmenter said.

Parmenter was at K-Bobs restaurant Thursday night when “The Jump Band,” Johnny Mulhair, Duane Castleberry and Lee Elk, paid tribute to Gilmer by performing “Sugar Shack.”

That’s the song for which Gilmer and the Fireballs were best known. Recorded in 1963, it was the last of three No. 1 Billboard magazine hits recorded in the Clovis studio.

While Buddy Holly was the best known recording artist who frequented Petty’s studio, Gilmer and the Fireballs had plenty of success as well. The Fireballs recorded six Top 40 hits between 1959 and 1967, including “Sugar Shack,” “Daisy Petal Pickin’” and “Bottle of Wine” with Gilmer as their headliner.

Fireballs lead guitarist George Tomsco said the band had some vocals, but was originally branded an instrumental group.

“Our vocalist, Chuck Tharp, got his feelings ‘hampered,’ so he decided he wanted to quit and start his own band,” Tomsco said.

After Tharp quit, the band found itself recording in Clovis.

“It was 1960. We had a booking in Canada. We needed a vocalist because part of our show was the hits of the day. So we said to Petty, ‘Norm, what do we do?’ Petty suggested Gilmer,” Tomsco said.

Gilmer’s was Petty’s studio singer at the time, having arrived in 1959.

Gilmer and his bandmates were not pleased when they first heard “Sugar Shack” post production.

They had recorded a basic track, Tomsco said, but it was in production with Petty that the song picked up an introduction from a “Solovox,” made by Hammond Organ.

Tomsco calls it “the circus music.”

“We came back to Clovis late one night so we thought we’d drop by Norm’s place and let him know we’re back in town. So we dropped by. He says, ‘I want you to hear something.’ We go with him to the studio and that’s where we heard the final version. I just about puked,” Tomsco said.

Tomsco said it was apparent Gilmer and the rest of the band didn’t like it either.

“The look on everybody’s face was the same. We were convinced he had ruined it,” Tomsco said.

A record company executive at Dot Records in California also had reservations about the song, calling “Sugar Shack” “too different.”

The executive took it, but said copies would only be sent to radio stations and other select points, no singles would be pressed, thus nothing for the public to buy.

The song went to No. 1 quickly in Amarillo, Gilmer’s home town.

Eventually singles were pressed, sales rocketed and the song went to No. 1 nationwide.

Yes, that’s also Gilmer singing on the Fireballs’ next top 10 single, “Bottle of Wine” in 1967.

“On ‘Bottle of Wine,’ I was hesitant to record that song just because of the alcohol content. I don’t think Jimmy was really into it either and he sang it differently,” Tomsco said.

Tomsco, like Parmenter, described Gilmer as a “nice guy.”

“Jimmy was very personable. He was outgoing and a pleasant person. He did a great job on stage, he was always willing to work and to travel,” Tomsco said.

Clovis Furniture Exchange owner Randy Petty is no relation to Norman Petty, but he is president of “Friends of Norman Petty” a non-profit group “that helps maintain the Norman Petty Studios history and legacy.”

“My father told me Gilmer worked for him on the remodel of Norman Petty’s Mesa Theater (on Clovis’ Main Street). He and the Fireballs worked on the project. That’s how they paid for their recording sessions in the evening at the Petty Studio.”

Gilmer last performed with the Fireballs in February 2022 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA, Petty studio officials announced last week on their Facebook page. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s in recent years and died in his hometown of Amarillo.