#27: Goin’ Away by the Fireballs
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: May 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #79
YouTube: “Goin’ Away”
Lyrics: “Goin’ Away”
The Fireballs were formed in Raton, New Mexico, in 1957 and got their start as an instrumental group featuring the distinctive lead guitar of George Tomsco. Born in 1940 in Raton (NM), Tomsco learned to play guitar. Another founding member, Stan Lark, was also born in 1940 in Raton (NM). In liner notes of one of their albums, it states “Stan Lark plays electric bass… is as tall as a house and eats like a horse.” They recorded at Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico. According to group founders Tomsco and Lark, they took their name after their standing ovation performance of Jerry Lee Lewis‘s “Great Balls of Fire”, at the Raton High School PTA talent contest in New Mexico, U.S. They reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 with the singles “Torquay” (#39), and “Bulldog” (#24). “Torquay” climbed to #6 in Calgary (AB). “Vaquero (Cowboy)” peaked at #7 in Calgary in 1960. “Quite a Party” peaked at #27 on the Hot 100 and #29 in the UK Singles chart in August 1961. There were lineup changes in the early 1960s when the Fireballs added Doug Roberts on drums, plus Petty Studio singer Jimmy Gilmer (born September 15, 1940, in Chicago and raised in Amarillo, Texas) to the group.