Sonny West – Sweet Rockin' Rock-Ola Ruby

 Joseph "Sonny" West (born July 30, 1937 near Lubbock, Texas) is an American songwriter and musician, best known as the co-writer of two of Buddy Holly's biggest hits: "Oh, Boy!" and "Rave On".

In 1956 West formed a band with Jimmy Metz (string bass), Doc McKay (drums) and Buddy Smith (guitar). They recorded "Rock-Ola Ruby" and "Sweet Rockin' Baby" at the local radio station KLVT in Levelland. Bob Kaliff, a disc jockey at KLVT, then arranged for West to re-record the two songs at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. Only 700 copies of the songs were released on Petty's Nor-Va-Jak label.

In February 1957 West recorded a song, "All My Love", with McKay (drums), Metz (trumpet), and Glen Dee Hardin (piano). Only a few copies of this recording were made, which were sent to record companies to attract their interest in releasing the record commercially. One of the copies was heard by Buddy Holly, who with The Crickets recorded a version of the song at Petty's studios in Lubbock, as "Oh, Boy!" in July 1957. It was subsequently released in October and went on to reach number 10 on the US charts and number 3 on the UK charts in early 1958. The song was attributed to West, Petty, and Bill Tilghman, although according to West it was written by him alone, with Petty requiring his name to be added as part of the commercial contract with Holly. It was not until 2002 that West's version of "All My Love" was commercially released, when it was included on this debut solo album, Sweet Rockin' Rock-Ola Ruby.

At the end of 1957 Petty took over as West's manager and arranged a two-year recording contract with Atlantic Records, with a minimum of four releases. In December that year West recorded "Rave On", which was released on February 17, 1958, with the B-side, "Call on Cupid", on Atlantic Records, but achieved little commercial success. The song was inspired by a line from Carl Perkins' 1956 song "Dixie Fried".

On January 25, 1958 Holly recorded a version of "Rave On" at Bell Sound Studios in New York as a track for his debut solo album, Buddy Holly, with Coral Records releasing it as a solo single in April 1958. Although it barely made the top 40, peaking at No. 37 in the United States, it reached No. 5 in England.

In the spring of 1958 West recorded "Baby Bessie Lee", "Doll Britches" and "Linda Loves a Hula Hoop", backed by Sonny Curtis (guitar), Vi Petty (piano), George Atwood (bass) and McKay/Bo Clarke (drums) at Petty's Clovis Studios. In early 1959 Sonny flew to Phoenix, Arizona, where he recorded two songs, "Love Denied" and "Pretty Little Girl", with Al Casey on guitar. While neither song was released, "Love Denied" was later covered by Waylon Jennings, who also covered "Rave On". In 1961 West and Casey also recorded a version of Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". 

1 Sweet Rockin' Baby

2 Rock-Ola Ruby

3 All My love

4 Rave On

5 Call On Cupid

6 Dreamboat

7 Baby Bessie Lee

8 Doll Britches

9 Linda Loves A Hula Hoop

10 Love Denied

11 Pretty Little Girl

12 Wasted Days And Wasted Nights

13 Maybe You're The One

14 Evening Star

15 Sugar Hill

16 Ride

17 Oh Boy

18 Dire Need

19 The Rave Is Gone

20 Cast Iron Arm

21 A Bad Case

22 Big City Woman

23 Sweet Dreams

24 I've Had It

Sonny West

The Best of The Fireballs ...The Original Norman Petty Masters

 

The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, were an American rock and roll group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The original line-up consisted of George Tomsco (lead guitar), Chuck Tharp (vocals), Stan Lark (bass), Eric Budd (drums), and Dan Trammell (rhythm guitar).

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. 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, USA. They reached the top 40 with the singles "Torquay" (1959), "Bulldog" (1960), and "Quite a Party" (1961). "Quite a Party" peaked at No. 29 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1961. Tharp, Budd, and Trammell left the group in the early 1960s, but the Fireballs added Doug Roberts on drums, plus Petty Studio singer/pianist Jimmy Gilmer to the group.

Besides their own recordings, the Fireballs were studio musicians for other recording artist projects. Among many, folk singer Carolyn Hester and Arthur Alexander. Norman Petty had been Buddy Holly's main recording producer; after Holly's death, he obtained the rights to Holly's early rehearsal and home demo recordings. From May 1962 until August 1968, Petty had the Fireballs overdub the Holly material, making them the band he never knew he had, though the band had met Holly at Petty's studio in 1957. The overdubs were originally released on four albums of "new" Holly material throughout the 1960s with four of the efforts, released as singles, charting. In 1964, they recorded and released an album (solely under Jimmy Gilmer's name) of a dozen Holly covers called Buddy's Buddy, likely inspired by the posthumous collaborations.

All of the Fireballs' material has been reissued on Ace Records (UK) and Sundazed record labels. The Fireballs continued performing with original members George Tomsco, Stan Lark, and Chuck Tharp until 2006, when Tharp died of cancer. Gilmer returned as lead vocalist in 2007. Lark retired from the group in 2016. Tomsco has continued to release CD's of new material using the Fireballs name and continues to do the occasional show as a "solo Fireball", and also along with Gilmer. 

 The Fireballs

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