"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.
"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.
Famous quotes containing the words sugar and/or shack:
“The Management Area of Cherokee
National Forest, interested in fish,
Has mapped Tellico and Bald Rivers
And North River, with the tributaries
Brookshire Branch and Sugar Cove Creed:
A fishy map for facile fishery....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Remember the waterfront shack with the sign FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Of course it’s fresh, we’re on the ocean. Of course it’s for sale, we’re not giving it away. Of course it’s here, otherwise the sign would be someplace else. The final sign: FISH.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)