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The Top 100 Songs of 1963
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1. |
Sugar Shack |
Jimmy Gilmer & Fireballs |
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2. |
He's So Fine |
Chiffons |
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3. |
Dominique |
Singing Nun |
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4. |
Blue Velvet |
Bobby Vinton |
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5. |
Hey Paula |
Paul & Paula |
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6. |
Fingertips - Part 2 |
Stevie Wonder |
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7. |
Sukiyaki |
Kyu Sakamoto |
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8. |
I Will Follow Him |
Peggy March |
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9. |
My Boyfriend's Back |
Angels |
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10. |
Walk Like A Man |
Four Seasons |
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11. |
Go Away Little Girl |
Steve Lawrence |
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12. |
I'm Leaving It Up To You |
Dale & Grace |
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13. |
If You Wanna Be Happy |
Jimmy Soul |
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14. |
Surf City |
Jan & Dean |
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15 |
It's My Party |
Lesley Gore |
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16. |
Walk Right In |
Rooftop Singers |
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17. |
Easier Said Than Done |
Essex |
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18. |
Deep Purple |
Nino Temple & April Stevens |
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19. |
So Much In Love |
Tymes |
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20. |
Our Day Will Come |
Ruby & Romantics |
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21. |
Louie, Louie |
Kingsmen |
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22. |
Can't Get Used To Losing You |
Andy Williams |
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23. |
Be My Baby |
Ronettes |
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24. |
Ruby Baby |
Dion |
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25. |
Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh! |
Allan Sherman |
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26. |
Sally, Go 'Round The Roses |
Jaynetts |
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27. |
The End Of The World |
Skeeter Davis |
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28. |
Wipe Out |
Surfaris |
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29. |
Blowin' In The Wind |
Peter, Paul & Mary |
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30. |
Washington Square |
Villiage Stompers |
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31. |
Puff The Magic Dragon |
Peter, Paul & Mary |
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32. |
Surfin' USA |
Beach Boys |
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33. |
RhythmOf The Rain |
Cascades |
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34. |
I Love You Because |
Al Martino |
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35. |
The Night Has A 1000 Eyes |
Bobby Vee |
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36. |
You're The Reason I'm Living |
Bobby Darin |
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37. |
Everybody |
Tommy Roe |
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38. |
If I had A Hammer |
Trini Lopez |
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39. |
You Can't Sit Down |
Dovells |
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40. |
Hello Stranger |
Barbara Lewis |
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41. |
Da Doo Ron Ron |
Crystals |
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42. |
Candy Girl |
Four Seasons |
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43. |
Blue On Blue |
Bobby Vinton |
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44. |
South Street |
Orlons |
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45. |
You Don't Have To Be A Baby to Cry |
Caravelles |
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46. |
Hotel Happiness |
Brook Benton |
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47. |
Devil in Disguise |
Elvis Presley |
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48. |
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport |
Rolf Harris |
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49. |
Pipeline |
Chantay's |
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50. |
Since I Fell For You |
Lenny Welch |
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51. |
Heat Wave |
Martha & Vandellas |
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52. |
Cry Baby |
Garnett Mimms & Enchanters |
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53. |
It's All Right |
Impressions |
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54. |
Foolish Little Girl |
Shirelles |
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55. |
Tell Him |
Exciters |
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56. |
Busted |
Ray Charles |
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57. |
Loop De Loop |
Johnny Thunder |
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58. |
Up On The Roof |
Drifters |
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59. |
She's a Fool |
Lesley Gore |
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60. |
Memphis |
Lonnie Mack |
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61. |
Mean Woman Blues |
Roy Orbison |
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62. |
Baby Workout |
Jackie Wilson |
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63. |
Judy's Turn To Cry |
Lesley Gore |
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64. |
One Fine Day |
Chiffons |
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65. |
Pepino The Italian Mouse |
Lou Monte |
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66. |
My Dad |
Paul Peterson |
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67. |
Two Faces Have I |
Lou Chrisie |
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68. |
Maria Elena |
Los Indios Tabajaras |
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69. |
From A Jack To A King |
Ned Miller |
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70. |
Losing You |
Brenda Lee |
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71. |
Then He Kissed Me |
Crystals |
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72. |
Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of Summer |
Nat King Cole |
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73. |
Be True To Your School |
Beach Boys |
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74. |
It's Up To You |
Rick Nelson |
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75. |
Donna The Prima Donna |
Dion |
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76. |
Drip Drop |
Dion |
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77. |
Young Lovers |
Paul & Paula |
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78. |
Mockingbird |
Inez Foxx |
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79. |
Blame It On the Bossa Nova |
Eydie Gorme |
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80. |
Surfer Girl |
Beach Boys |
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81. |
In Dreams |
Roy Orbison |
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82. |
I Can't Stay Mad At You |
Skeeter Davis |
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83. |
Don't Say Nothin' Bad About My Baby |
Cookies |
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84. |
Talk Back Trembling Lips |
Johnny Tillotson |
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85. |
Two Lovers |
Mary Wells |
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86. |
Wonderful! Wonderful! |
Tymes |
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87. |
Wild Weekend |
Rebels |
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88. |
You've Really Got A Hold On Me |
Miracles |
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89. |
More |
Kai Winding |
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90. |
Still |
Bill Anderson |
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91. |
The Monkey Time |
Major Lance |
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92. |
Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah |
Bob B. Soxx & Blue Jeans |
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93. |
Mickey's Monkey |
Miracles |
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94. |
Quicksand |
Martha & Vandellas |
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95. |
Reverend Mr. Black |
Kingston Trio |
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96. |
Take These Chains From My Heart |
Ray Charles |
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97. |
Bossa Nova Baby |
Elvis Presley |
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98. |
Our Winter Love |
Bill Pursell |
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99. |
Down At Papa Joe's |
Dixiebelles |
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100. |
What Will Mary Say |
Johnny Mathis |
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Some statistics from 1963
US GDP (1998 dollars): $617.4 billion
Federal spending: $111.32 billion
Federal debt: $310.3 billion
Consumer Price Index: 30.6
Unemployment: 5.5%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04 ($0.05 as of 1/7/63)
Washington-to-Moscow "hot line" communications link opens, designed to reduce risk of accidental war (Aug. 30).
There are 15,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam.
Pope John XXIII dies (June 3), and is succeeded June 21 by Cardinal Montini, who becomes Paul VI.
US Supreme Court rules no locality may require recitation of Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools (June 17).
"March on Washington," civil rights rally held by 200,000 blacks and whites in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King delivers "I have a dream" speech (Aug. 28).
President Kennedy shot and killed in Dallas, Tex. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President same day (Nov. 22).
World Series
LA Dodgers defeated NY Yankees (4-0)
NBA Championship
Boston defeated LA Lakers (4-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Chateaugay
NCAA Basketball Championship
Loyola-IL defeated Cincinnati (60-58 OT)
NCAA Football Champions
Texas (11-0-0)
Viewers tuned into NBC witness Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on camera – the first live telecast of a murder.
The French Chef with Julia Child debuts on educational television.
Best Picture: Lawrence of Arabia
Best Actor: Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird
Best Supporting Actor: Ed Begley, Sweet Bird of Youth
Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker
Best Supporting Actress: Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker
Best Director: David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia
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| 1963 #1 Hit - Sugar Shack |
by Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs
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After several successful singles doing instrumentals, the Fireballs added singer Jimmy Gilmer to front the lineup and the result was an infectious piece of pop fluff called "Sugar Shack," which hit number one right before the Beatles invaded American shores. This album is typical of the times, a hit single buttressed by quickly cut album filler. But George Tomsco's guitar cuts like a knife, and while Gilmer may be one of the whitest singers ever to step in front of producer Norman Petty's microphone, the Fireballs keep things rockin' throughout.
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"Sugar Shack" is a song written in 1962 by Keith McCormack and Jimmy Torres. Torres gave his song rights to his aunt, Fay Voss, as a birthday present. The song was recorded in 1963 by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs at Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico.
The unusual and distinctive organ part was played on a Hammond Solovox, Model J.
Sugar Shack" hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 (where it spent five weeks from October 12 to November 9, 1963) and Cashbox singles charts (where it spent three weeks from October 19 to November 2, 1963). Its run on the Billboard chart was cut short because Billboard ceased publishing an R&B chart from November 30, 1963 to January 23, 1965. "Sugar Shack" has the distinction of being the last single to make it to number one on the Billboard R&B chart because Billboard did not publish an R&B chart for fourteen months. On November 29, 1963, the song received RIAA certification for selling over a million copies, earning gold record status, and was the number-one single of the year according to Billboard. "Sugar Shack" also hit the UK at #45 on the Record Retailer chart.
Note: It has been stated in error above that Jim Torres had co-written the song 'Sugar Shack' with Keith McCormack but had given his share to his aunt, Faye Voss. Actually he was no kin to Mrs. Voss as she was Keith's aunt and Keith has stated that 'he' shared the song with his aunt Faye because of all the support she and her husband Johnny Voss had made to him over the years. Johnny Voss had been the band's original manager and promoter.
In 1993, Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat covered the song for the album Muppet Beach Party.
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| An early autographed b/w photo of Jimmy Gilmer |
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JIMMY GILMER
Born 15 September 1940, Chicago, Illinois
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Jimmy Gilmer was born in Chicago, but grew up in Amarillo, Texas, where he studied music at the Musical Arts Conservatory. 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 come back and record. At Petty's NorVaJak recording studio in Clovis, Jimmy met a band from Raton, New Mexico, 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. 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 banner year for the boys as their song, "Sugar Shack", hit the top of the charts. Released in May of 1963, it didn't enter the Billboard charts until September 21, but from there sales really exploded and three weeks later "Sugar Shack" was already at # 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 # 15. Gilmer scored another Top 10 hit in 1968 with "Bottle Of Wine" on Atco (# 9), but this was released under the name The Fireballs, because groups were popular then. The Fireballs were one of the very few groups in rock 'n' roll history to chart both instrumental and vocal hits onto the Billboard Top 100. Gilmer must have liked the song BORN TO BE WITH YOU a lot, because he recorded it twice: first for Hamilton in 1962 (credited to Chimmy Gilmer and released in the UK on London HLU 9632, a nice up-tempo version) and then again for Dot (16714) in 1965. Jimmy Gilmer left the Fireballs in 1969 and was hired by United Artists Music in Nashville. In the 1980's he became vice-president of CBS Songs' southern operations.
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This recording took place in 1999.
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The story of Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs is somewhat confusing, in that the Gilmer-fronted lineup was identical to the one that played on records simply credited to the Fireballs (see separate entry). The New Mexico band had several instrumental hits in the late '50s and early '60s in a slick Tex-Mex style, with staccato guitar lines that prefigured surf music. Using the same producer as Buddy Holly (Norman Petty), the group also performed controversial overdubs that were added to some of Holly's posthumously released material. Again following the lead of Holly and the Crickets, in the mid-'60s they recorded some singles credited to Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs. These were distinguished from most other Fireballs records in that they were vocal numbers, not instrumental, Gilmer (who was second guitarist in the Fireballs) being the lead singer.
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs had a monster number one single in late 1963 with "Sugar Shack," a light pop/rocker dominated by the vibrating sound of a primitive precursor to the synthesizer, the Solovox. The song was singled out for special venom by Greil Marcus in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, who called it "the worst excuse for itself rock and roll had yet produced." The public disagreed, sending it to number one; surprisingly, it also topped the R&B charts.
Gilmer and band made the Top 20 one more time with "Daisy Petal Pickin'," a transparent "Sugar Shack" soundalike, right down to the Solovox. They 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. Gilmer left the Fireballs shortly afterwards, though, and the Fireballs saga petered out after a few other low-charting singles in the late '60s.
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| The original 1958 line-up was: George Tomsco (lead guitar), Chuck Tharp (vocals), Stan Lark (bass), Eric Budd (drums), and Dan Trammell (rhythm guitar). |
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| North High Class of '66 |
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