Song Of The Day 10/3/2015: Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs – “Ain’t Gonna Tell Anybody”
This installment focuses on the years 1964–66, when Beatlemania flourished and American music stars were left in a panic since many of them had receding hairlines. For Part 1, I auditioned 362 songs between 1960 and 1963 that peaked between positions 41 and 100 on the Billboard Hot 100. But for Part 2, which covers one less calendar year, I gave an ear to no less than 683 songs over about ten days. Are you kidding me? That’s a whole lot of teen death anthems, inarticulate dance numbers and Vietnam protest songs. And one protest song against Vietnam protest songs. I’m parched.
Anyway, let’s get started. Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs convened in Raton, New Mexico, in the way northern part of the state just a spit-take from the Colorado border. They recorded their hits down the road in Clovis at Norman Petty’s studio, the same factory where Buddy Holly & the Crickets made their best-known hits. The Fireballs pinned down a #1 hit in 1963 with “Sugar Shack,” an off-kilter number with a cutesy keyboard riff that foretold the U.S. espresso revolution about a quarter-century before full saturation. Much better was “Ain’t Gonna Tell Anybody” (#53, 1964), which shows off more than a little of Holly’s influence in its casual twang and hasty motion.