Sugar Shack: Best of

Jimmy Gilmer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 9, 1996)
• Original Release Date: April 9, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B0000014YB
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,864 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sugar Shack

2. Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache

3. Daisy Petal Pickin'

4. Lonesome Tears

5. Ain't Gonna Tell Nobody [#]

6. Think It Over

7. She Belongs to Me

8. Maybe Baby

9. What I Am (Say I Am) [#]

10. Shy Girl [#]

11. Bottle of Wine

12. Goin' Away

13. Come on, React!

14. Long Green [#]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Go Jimmy Go, December 26, 2001

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sugar Shack: Best of (Audio CD)

The Fireballs, although actually a vocal group, had their early chart successes with instrumentals only. When the original lead was replaced by Jimmy Gilmer, the group blasted onto the airwaves with the chart-topping infectious, quirky, coffee-house-fad-inspired "Sugar Shack" in 1963. Follow-up material was pretty much sound-alike imitations that failed to keep the chart successes coming. While "Daisy Petal Pickin'" was a considerable step-down from "...Shack", the third single, "Ain't Gonna Tell Anybody" was a solid, well-crafted pop tune that probably suffered due to its similarity in sound to "...Shack".

The Fireballs, minus credit to Gilmer, moved to Atco records and reimerged in '67 with another top ten tune, the gritty, frathouse-aura "Bottle Of Wine". The follow-up, "Goin' Away" was a complete change of style, exhibiting a gently, swaying folk-like performance. Chart success was meager for this tune, it being probably just too soft for the noisy, pounding style demands of the late 60's music atmosphere. The Fireballs managed two more minor chart hits before finally fading from the spotlight of popular music.

This collection from Varese Vintage gathers up the output of the Fireballs from the introduction of Jimmy Gilmer and the signature "Sugar Shack" through their final Fireballs's singles in the late 60's. All seven charted singles are included with a few noncharting singles and other album cuts (with two from Gilmer's "Buddy's Buddy" album) rounding out this collection. While slightly meager on the overall track count (14), it is a well-produced, high-quality piece with excellent sound quality overall. Tracks are in stereo with the exception of 3,5,9,10 and 14. The eight-page liner notes booklet contains a history of the group along with a few pictures. An excellent overview of their heyday recordings.

3.0 out of 5 stars Limited Compilation Of Their "Best", August 5, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar Shack: Best of (Audio CD)

The Fireballs, from Raton, New Mexico, initially consisted of vocalist Chuck Tharp, lead guitar George Tomsco, Stan Lark (bass), drummer Eric Budd and Dan Trammell on rhythm guitar. Their first recording contract was with the Kapp label, but after nothing but failures there they hooked up with the much smaller Top Rank label and, in 1959, had their first of four straight instrumental hits when Torquay hit # 39 Billboard Hot 100 in November b/w Cry Baby. Whether Trammell was part of that hit is not clear, but he did leave the group in 1959.

In March 1960, Bulldog went to # 24 Hot 100 b/w Nearly Sunrise. and that August, Vaquero just made the Hot 100, settling in at # 99 b/w Chief Whoopin-Koff. Nothing done with vocals, however, made any impact, so Tharp was the next one to quit. It was around this time that Norman Petty introduced a vocalist/pianist by the name of Jimmy Gilmer to the group, and in July 1961 the revamped band had their second-best hit to date when Quite A Party rose to # 27 Hot 100, b/w Gunshot, for the Warwick label.

By now Petty was also using them to overdub previously-unreleased Buddy Holly cuts at his Clovis, New Mexico studio, and while the three hits produced there are not in this CD, you can find them on the excellent compilation The Best Of: The Original Norman Petty Masters.

Their big break, however, came in 1963 after switching to Dot Records when Sugar Shack, billed to Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs (Jimmy did the vocals), soared to # 1 on both the R&B and Hot 100 charts in October (it spent 5 weeks at # 1 Hot 100), and was later named the # 1 Billboard hit of the year. The excellent flipside, My Heart Is Free, got lost in the shuffle. The following February they scored again with # 15 Hot 100 Daisy Petal Pickin' b/w When My Tears Have Dried, and in April 1964 had Ain't Gonna Tell Anybody reach # 53 Hot 100 b/w Young Am I.

By this time the full impact of the British Invasion, led by The Beatles, was being felt and it wasn't until late 1967/early 1968 that they returned to the charts on the Atco label, once again billed simply as The Fireballs, with Bottle Of Wine reaching # 9 Hot 100 in February 1968 b/w Can't You See I'm Tryin'. Two months later Goin' Away stalled at # 79 Hot 100, but did climb to # 33 on the new Adult Contemporary charts b/w Hroovy Motions, and around Christmas, Come On, React! hit # 63 Hot 100 b/w Woman, Help Me!.

Their last charter then came in March 1969 when they took Long Green, which had been the B-side of The Kingsmen's 1964 hit Jolly Green Giant, to # 73 Hot 100 b/w Light In The Window.

Although all the hits from Sugar Shack to Long Green are here, the album is diminished somewhat in my opinion by the omission of the first four instrumentals. And while it does offer nice renditions of the Holly cuts Lonesome Tears, Think It Over, and Maybe Baby, I would rather have seen some of the flipsides to their hits, none of which are included.

7 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Scandal and Libel, August 16, 2000

By 

Leonard Part VI (Windsor) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar Shack: Best of (Audio CD)

Mr. Weissengruber's "review" of "Sugar Shack" is typical of devious "hipsters" who do not appreciate good old fashioned Rock and Roll.

Quibbling over the pronunciation of "espresso" suggests that Mr. Weissengruber has nothing to do with the real pulse of rock and roll.

The kind of pulse throbbing in the voice of Gilmer completely toasts the tepid spirit of Weissengruber's elitist view of rock and roll. Indeed, it toasts the "very idea" of Weissengruber