Jimmy Gilmer born 15 September 1940

Jimmy Gilmer (September 15, 1940 - September 7, 2024) was better known as the lead singer to the most successful R&R band to emerge from New Mexico, The Fireballs. 

Jimmy Gilmer was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Amarillo, Texas, where he studied music at the Musical Arts Conservatory. Her graduated from Amarillo High School in 1958. He led a rockabilly band, the Jimmy Gilmer Combo, that played at high school and college dances in a 100-mile radius of Amarillo. The Combo’s drummer, Gary Swaffert, also played drums for the Norman Petty Trio and was responsible for introducing Gilmer to Petty.  Jimmy’s first single, released under his own name on Decca in 1958, sold poorly, but Petty saw potential in Gilmer and encouraged him to return and record. 

At Petty’s NorVaJak recording studio in Clovis, New Mexico, Jimmy met a band from Raton, although he didn’t work with them. They were the Fireballs, who scored two instrumental Top 40 hits with ‘Torquay’ (1959) and ‘Bulldog’ (1960). After a major tour, their lead singer Chuck Tharpe suddenly quit and Gilmer joined the Fireballs as both vocalist and rhythm guitarist, though there were still solo releases by Gilmer as well as records by the Fireballs. Jimmy Gilmer first appeared on the UK scene in 1962 with a disc called 'Born To Be With You.' 

He must have liked the song because he recorded it twice – first for Hamilton in 1962 (credited to Chimmy Gilmer and released in the UK on London) and then again for Dot in 1965. ‘Born To Be With you’ was a countrified version of the song made popular by the Chordettes in 1956. A Norman Petty production, the single had hints of the Holly influence, but it’s hard to see who would have been attracted to it. Same goes for the B-side, ‘I’m Gonna Go Walkin’, a simple pop song. In the US, ‘I’m Gonna Go Walkin’ was the top side with ‘Won’t Be Long’ as the B side. 

It was Petty’s decision to eventually market the Fireballs to record companies as Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs, since he’d had previous success marketing the Crickets also as Buddy Holly & The Crickets. In 1962, Norman Petty signed the group to Randy Wood’s Dot label. From that point on Jimmy Gilmer, George Tomsco, Stan Lark and Doug Roberts would climb the ladder to stardom. 

                                    

1963 was a top year for the group as their song ‘Sugar Shack’ hit the top of the charts. Released in May 1963, it didn’t enter the Billboard charts until September 21, but three weeks later ‘Sugar Shack’ was at No.1, where it would stay for five weeks, becoming the biggest selling record of 1963 in the US. The follow-up, ‘Daisy Petal Pickin’ (which, like ‘Sugar Shack’, was co-written by Keith McCormack of The String-a-Longs), peaked at No.15. The group and Jimmy 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. The Fireballs were one of the very few groups in rock ‘n’ roll history to chart both instrumental and vocal hits on the Billboard Top 100. 

Gilmer’s albums included Sugar Shack (1963), Buddy’s Buddy (1964), Lucky ‘Leven (1965), Folkbeat (1965), Campusology (1966), Firewater (1968), Bottle of Wine (1968) and Come On, React! (1969). He left the Fireballs in 1969 and relocated to Nashville. He was hired by United Artists Music, where he built a 30-year publishing career. Through a number of mergers and acquisitions, he rose to become a vice president at CBS Songs, plus successive executive positions at EMI and SBK. Among the many songwriters he aided were Richard Leigh, Bobby Goldsboro and Pat Alger. He also signed Brad Paisley, whom he also managed through the early years of the star’s career. 

In 1989-91, he served as the president of the Nashville chapter of The Recording Academy. He was a 1992 graduate of Leadership Music. Meanwhile in 1989, George Tomsco, Stan Lark, and Chuck Tharp all original members of the Fireballs re-united for the Clovis Music Festival, then continued performing with original members until 2006, when Tharp died of cancer. When Gilmer retired in 2007 he re-joined his old group as lead vocalist and sang occasionally at oldies shows. Stan Lark retired from the group in 2016. 

Gilmer last performed with the Fireballs in February 2022 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.  He had suffered from Alzheimer’s in recent years and died in his hometown of Amarillo, while in hospice care, on September 7, 2024, eight days before his 84th birthday. 

Edited from 45cat, Wikipedia, Myhighplains.com, & Music Row)