Jimmy Castor
Jimmy Castor | |
|---|---|
 Castor in 1972. | |
| Background information | |
| Born | June 23, 1940[n1] Manhattan, New York |
| Died | January 16, 2012 (aged 71) Henderson, Nevada |
| Genres | Soul, R&B, funk |
James Walter "Jimmy" Castor (June 23, 1940 – January 16, 2012) was an American pop and funk musician. He is best known as a fun disco/funk saxophonist, with his biggest hit single being 1972's million seller, "Troglodyte (Cave Man)".[1]
Biography
Castor started as a doo-wop singer in New York.[2] He wrote and recorded "I Promise to Remember" in 1956. Castor then replaced Frankie Lymon in The Teenagers in 1957 before switching to the saxophone in 1960. Castor played sax on Dave "Baby" Cortez's hit "Rinky Dink". He had a solo hit with "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You" on Smash Records in 1966. He formed the Jimmy Castor Bunch in 1972 and signed with RCA. As leader of The Jimmy Castor Bunch in the 1970s, and also as a solo artist, he released several successful albums and singles. The group reached the peak of their commercial success in 1972 with the release of their album, It's Just Begun, which featured two hit singles: the title track and "Troglodyte (Cave Man)," which was a large hit in the U.S., peaking at #6 in the Billboard Hot 100. The track stayed in the chart for 14 weeks and was a million seller by June 30, 1972, and received a gold disc award from the R.I.A.A.[1]
Castor continued the trend in 1975 with "The Bertha Butt Boogie" and later recorded "E-Man Boogie," "King Kong," "Bom Bom," and "Potential." The Castor band included keyboardist/trumpeter Gerry Thomas, bassist Doug Gibson, guitarist Harry Jensen, conga player Lenny Fridle, Jr., and drummer Bobby Manigault also (guitar) LeBurn Maddox 1976-1979 [1] Thomas, who simultaneously recorded with the Fatback Band, left in the 1980s to exclusively record with them. Castor recorded as a solo performer from 1976 until 1988. He had one of his bigger hits in many years with a 1988 revival of "Love Makes a Woman," which paired him with disco diva Joyce Sims. Castor had his own record label, Long Distance, in the 1980s.
Many of the group's tunes have been heavily sampled in films and in hip-hop. In particular, the saxophone hook and groove from "It's Just Begun" and the spoken word intro and groove from "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" (namely, "What we're gonna do right here is go back...") have been sampled extensively.
He died in January 16, 2012 from Heart failure, [3] seven days before his 72nd birthday.
Discography
Albums
- Hey Leroy (1968) (Smash)
- It's Just Begun (1972) (RCA)
- Phase 2 (1972) (RCA)
- Dimension 3 (1973) (RCA)
- The Jimmy Castor Bunch featuring The Everything Man (1974) (Atlantic)
- Butt Of Course... (1975) (Atlantic)
- Supersound (1975) (Atlantic)
- E-Man Groovin' (1976) (Atlantic)
- Maximum Stimulation (1977) (Atlantic)
- Let It Out (1978) (Drive/T.K. Records)
- The Jimmy Castor Bunch (1979) (Cotillion/Atlantic)
- I Love Monsters (1979)
- C (1980) (Long Distance)
- The Return of Leroy (1983) (Dream)
- The Everything Man-The Best of The Jimmy Castor Bunch (1995) (Rhino)
Chart singles
Note: All credited to The Jimmy Castor Bunch unless otherwise stated.
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Pop[4] | US R&B[5] | ||
| 1967 | "Hey, Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You" Jimmy Castor |
31 | 16 |
| 1972 | "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" | 6 | 4 |
| "Luther the Anthropoid (Ape Man)" | 105 | - | |
| 1975 | "Soul Serenade" | - | 72 |
| "The Bertha Butt Boogie (pt.1)" | 16 | 22 | |
| "Potential" | - | 25 | |
| "King Kong (pt.1)" | 69 | 23 | |
| 1976 | "Supersound" | - | 42 |
| "Bom Bom" | - | 97 | |
| "Everything Is Beautiful To Me" | - | 67 | |
| 1977 | "Space Age" | - | 28 |
| 1978 | "Maximum Stimulation" | - | 82 |
| 1979 | "Don't Do That!" | - | 50 |
| 1980 | "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" Jimmy Castor |
- | 93 |
| 1984 | "Amazon" Jimmy Castor |
- | 84 |
| 1985 | "It Gets To Me" Jimmy Castor |
- | 81 |
| 1988 | "Love Makes A Woman" Joyce Sims feat. Jimmy Castor |
- | 29 |
Notes
- ^[n1] Note: Some other sources give different years of birth, between 1943 and 1947, though an obituary from The New York Times states "James Walter Castor was born on Jan. 23, 1940, in Manhattan. (His son said that for years he had let others assume he was far younger than he was, by as much as seven years.)"[6][7]
References
- ^ a b c Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 309. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
- ^ 31 Jan 2012 (2012-01-31). "Jimmy Castor". Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Tim Cashmere. "Music News – Funk Icon Jimmy Castor Dies At 64 | News | Music News". Noise11. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 115. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 69.
- ^ "Jimmy Castor, musician who mastered many genres dies at 71". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
- ^ Terence McArdle (2012-01-19). "Jimmy Castor dead at 71; '70s songs became popular among sampling hip-hop artists". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
External links
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| National | |
| Artists | |
