Jimmy Gilmer obit

Sugar Shack's Jimmy Gilmer dies at 83

 

He was not on the list.

Jimmy Gilmer, believed to be the most recorded vocalist at Norman Petty Studios, died Saturday a week short of his 84th birthday, studio officials said.

Gilmer and The Fireballs recorded their biggest hit -- "Sugar Shack" -- in 1963. It was the last of three No. 1 Billboard magazine hits recorded in the Clovis studio.

"Jimmy first came to the Clovis studio in 1959 and worked with Norman for the next 10 years," the studio announced on its Facebook page Almost Paradise: The Sounds of Norman Petty Studios.

"Rejoining The Fireballs in 2006 after the death of Chuck Tharp, he continued performing with the group until 2022, his final show being in February 2022 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA. Jimmy suffered the last couple of years from Alzheimers. Sincerest condolences to his family and friends."

Gilmer grew up in Amarillo and was living there when he died.

While Buddy Holly was the best known recording artist who frequented Petty's studio on West Seventh Street, Gilmer and the Fireballs had plenty of success as well. The Fireballs recorded six Top 40 hits between 1959 and 1967, including "Sugar Shack" and "Daisy Petal Pickin'" with Gilmer as their headliner.

Gilmer was not an original member of The Fireballs, but joined the group in the early 1960s when he was Petty's studio singer.

Jimmy Gilmer was born in Chicago, but spent his formative years in Amarillo, Texas. As a singer and guitar player, Jimmy gravitated across state line to Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico made famous by the fact that Buddy Holly recorded there. After a fill-in gig with the Fireballs, a band from Raton, New Mexico, Jimmy was asked to join the band. When they began to perform “Sugar Shack” at their live shows Jimmy sent word to Petty that they had a hit on their hands. The song reached #1 in October of 1963 and was called the #1 song of 1963 by Billboard. Jimmy went on to become Vice President of CBS Songs, a division of United Artists Nashville, where he discovered and trained young talent “to not make the same mistakes I did.”