Jimmy Castor
{{Short description|American funk saxophonist (1940–2012)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Jimmy Castor
| image = Jimmy Castor 1972.JPG
| alt =
| caption = Castor in 1972
| image_size = 220px
| landscape =
| birth_name = James Walter Castor
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1940|1|23}}{{ref|name|[n1]}}
| birth_place = Manhattan, New York, U.S.
| origin =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|1|16|1940|1|23}}
| death_place = Henderson, Nevada, U.S.
| occupation =
| instrument = Saxophone, Percussion
| years_active =
| label =
| associated_acts = The Teenagers
The Jimmy Castor Bunch
| website =
}}
James Walter Castor (January 23, 1940{{ref|name|[n1]}} – January 16, 2012) was an American funk, R&B and soul musician. He is credited with vocals, saxophone and composition. He is best known for songs such as "It's Just Begun", "The Bertha Butt Boogie", and his biggest hit single, the million-seller "Troglodyte (Cave Man)."{{Cite book |last=Murrells |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr |title=The Book of Golden Discs |publisher=Barrie and Jenkins Ltd |year=1978 |isbn=0-214-20512-6 |edition=2nd |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/309 309] |url-access=registration}} Castor has been described as "one of the most sampled artists in music history" by the BBC.{{Cite news |date=2012-01-18 |title=Soul musician Jimmy Castor dies at the age of 71 |language=en-GB |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-16607855 |access-date=2022-06-12}}
Musical career
He was born in Manhattan, New York, United States. He started a group called Jimmy and the Juniors, who in 1956 recorded the original version of "I Promise to Remember", which according to Castor{{Cite web|url=https://jimmycastor.com/|title=Jimmy Castor – Feel The Funk|website=Jimmycastor.com|access-date=August 19, 2021}} Mercury Records did not want to promote. George Goldner had the famous doo-wop group The Teenagers record it and it became their third hit single. Later, Castor was asked to join the Teenagers.{{Cite news|last=Martin |first=Douglas |date=January 17, 2012 |title=Jimmy Castor, Musician Who Mastered Many Genres, Dies at 71 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/arts/music/jimmy-castor-musician-who-mastered-many-genres-dies-at-71.html |newspaper=The New York Times}} In late 1966, he released "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You".
As a solo artist and leader of The Jimmy Castor Bunch (TJCB) in the 1970s, Castor released several successful albums and singles. TJCB hit their commercial peak in 1972 upon the release of their album It's Just Begun, which featured two hit singles: the title track and "Troglodyte (Cave Man)", the latter of which became quite popular in the US, hitting #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track stayed on the chart for 14 weeks and on June 30, 1972, received a gold disc award from the RIAA for sales of a million copies. Castor released "It's Just Begun" in 1972. In 1973, he recorded a soprano saxophone instrumental cover of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" written by Gary Brooker, Keith Reid and Matthew Fisher (from Procol Harum), on a tune inspired by J.S.Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 BWV1068 in his "Air on the G string". Afrika Bambaataa said that "It's Just Begun" was very popular at South Bronx block parties in the 1970s. Later popular songs included "Bertha Butt Boogie", "Potential", "King Kong" and "A Groove Will Make You Move" in 1975 and 1976.
The Jimmy Castor Bunch included keyboardist/trumpeter Gerry Thomas, bassist Douglas Gibson, guitarist Harry Jensen, guitarist / sitarist Jeffrey Grimes, conga and triangle player Lenny Fridie, Jr., and drummers Elwood Henderson, Jr., and Bobby Manigault. Thomas also recorded with the Fatback Band, leaving TJCB in the 1980s to exclusively record with them.
Death and legacy
Castor died of heart failure on January 16, 2012, in Henderson, Nevada, just a week short of his 72nd birthday.{{Cite web |last=Tim Cashmere |title=Music News – Funk Icon Jimmy Castor Dies at 64 | News | Music News |date=January 17, 2012 |url=http://www.noise11.com/news/funk-icon-jimmy-castor-dies-at-64-20120117 |access-date=2012-01-17 |publisher=Noise11}}
Many of the group's tunes have been heavily sampled in films and in hip-hop. In particular, the saxophone hook and groove from the title track of "It's Just Begun". For example Ice-T sampled the track for the title track of his 1988 album Power.{{Cite web |title=Ice-T's 'Power' - Discover the Sample Source |url=https://www.whosampled.com/sample/169101/Ice-T-Power-The-Jimmy-Castor-Bunch-It%27s-Just-Begun/ |access-date=2020-03-27 |website=WhoSampled |language=en}} Also, heavy sampled is the spoken word intro and groove from "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" (namely, "What we're gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time..." and "Gotta find a woman, gotta find a woman"). Industrial hip hop group Tackhead covered the song "Just Begun" for the digital release of their album For the Love of Money.{{Cite web |date=2004 |title=Discography: For the Love of Money |url=http://www.tackhead.com/info/discography/albums/#c700 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140919040049/http://www.tackhead.com/info/discography/albums/#c700 |archive-date=September 19, 2014 |access-date=October 1, 2014 |publisher=Tackhead.com |df=mdy-all}}
Family
Castor's son, J-Cast, chose his stage name by using letters from Jimmy "J" and Castor "Cast". J-Cast released an album, J-Cast for President, on June 24, 2009, which was popular in Japan.{{Cite web|title=J-CAST FOR PRESIDENT |url=https://www.amazon.co.jp/J-CAST-PRESIDENT-J-%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88/dp/B00284JQ2O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 |website=Amazon.co.jp|access-date=2021-03-01}}{{Cite web |title=J-Cast/J-CAST FOR PRESIDENT |url=https://tower.jp/item/2569354/J-CAST-FOR-PRESIDENT |access-date=2021-03-01 |website=Tower.jp}} Jimmy had three other children; April, Jimmy Jr. and Sheli and ten grandchildren.
Discography
=Albums=
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |
| rowspan="2"| Year
! rowspan="2"| Album ! colspan="3"| Chart positions ! rowspan="2"| Label |
|---|
| width="40"|US Pop {{cite web|title=Jimmy Castor - Awards|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jimmy-castor-mn0000351842/awards|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=31 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030014436/https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jimmy-castor-mn0000351842/awards|archive-date=October 30, 2013}} ! width="40"|US R&B ! width="40"|CAN |
| 1967
| align="left"| Hey Leroy | – | – | – | Smash |
| rowspan="2"| 1972
| align="left"| It's Just Begun | 27 | 11 | 21 | rowspan="3"| RCA |
| align="left"| Phase 2
| 192 | – | – |
| 1973
| align="left"| Dimension 3 | – | 49 | – |
| 1974
| align="left"| The Jimmy Castor Bunch featuring the Everything Man | – | – | – | rowspan="5"| Atlantic |
| rowspan="2"| 1975
| align="left"| Butt of Course... | 74 | 34 | – |
| align="left"| Supersound
| – | 30 | – |
| 1976
| align="left"| E-Man Groovin' | 132 | 29 | – |
| 1977
| align="left"| Maximum Stimulation | – | – | – |
| 1978
| align="left"| Let It Out | – | – | – | Drive/TK Records |
| rowspan="1"| 1979
| align="left"| The Jimmy Castor Bunch | – | – | – | Cotillion/Atlantic |
| 1980
| align="left"| C | – | – | – | Long Distance |
| 1983
| align="left"| The Return of Leroy | – | – | – | Dream |
| 1995
| align="left"| The Everything Man–The Best of the Jimmy Castor Bunch | – | – | – | Rhino |
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. |
=Chart singles=
Note: All credited to The Jimmy Castor Bunch unless otherwise stated.
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |
| rowspan="2"| Year
! rowspan="2"| Single ! colspan="4"| Chart positions |
|---|
| style="width:40px;"|US Pop {{Cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |url=https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/115 |title=Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 |publisher=Record Research Inc. |year=2003 |isbn=0-89820-155-1 |edition=1st |location=Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin |page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/115 115]}} ! style="width:40px;"|US ! style="width:40px;"|AUS ! style="width:40px;"|CAN |
| | 1966
| style="text-align:left;"| "Hey, Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You" | 31 | 16 | – | 36 |
| rowspan="2"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" | 6 | 4 | 13 | 1 |
| style="text-align:left;"| "Luther the Anthropoid (Ape Man)"
| 105 | – | – | – |
| | 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| "A Whiter Shade of Pale" | – | – | – | – |
| rowspan="4"| 1975
| style="text-align:left;"| "Soul Serenade" | – | 72 | – | – |
| style="text-align:left;"| "The Bertha Butt Boogie (pt.1)"
| 16 | 22 | – | 30 |
| style="text-align:left;"| "Potential"
| – | 25 | – | – |
| style="text-align:left;"| "King Kong – Part 1"
| 69 | 23 | – | – |
| rowspan="3"| 1976
| style="text-align:left;"| "Supersound" | – | 42 | – | – |
| style="text-align:left;"| "Bom Bom"
| – | 97 | – | – |
| style="text-align:left;"| "Everything Is Beautiful to Me"
| – | 67 | – | – |
| rowspan="2"| 1977
| style="text-align:left;"| "Space Age" | 101 | 28 | – | – |
| style="text-align:left;"| "I Love a Mellow Groove"
| 108 | – | – | – |
| | 1978
| style="text-align:left;"| "Maximum Stimulation" | – | 82 | – | – |
| | 1979
| style="text-align:left;"| "Don't Do That!" | – | 50 | – | – |
| | 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| "Can't Help Falling in Love with You" | – | 93 | – | – |
| | 1984
| style="text-align:left;"| "Amazon" | – | 84 | – | – |
| | 1985
| style="text-align:left;"| "It Gets to Me" | – | 81 | – | – |
| | 1988
| style="text-align:left;"| "Love Makes a Woman" | – | 29 | – | – |
| colspan="7" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Notes
{{Refbegin}}
- {{note|name|[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 January 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.)"{{Cite news|last=McArdle, Terence |date=January 19, 2012 |title=Jimmy Castor dead at 71; '70s songs became popular among sampling hip-hop artists |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/jimmy-castor-dead-at-71-70s-songs-became-popular-among-sampling-hip-hop-artists/2012/01/19/gIQAbbkCBQ_story.html |access-date=2012-04-01 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}
{{Refend}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.70disco.com/jimmycas.htm Detailed biography]
- {{Discogs artist|Jimmy Castor}} as Jimmy Castor
- {{Discogs artist|The Jimmy Castor Bunch}} as The Jimmy Castor Bunch
- [https://www.45cat.com/45_search.php?sq=jimmy+castor&sm=ar Entries at 45cat.com]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castor, Jimmy}}
Category:20th-century African-American male singers
Category:20th-century American male singers
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:American male singers
Category:African-American songwriters
Category:American funk saxophonists
Category:American male saxophonists
Category:Singers from New York City
Category:Smash Records artists
Category:Songwriters from New York (state)
Category:The Teenagers members
Category:21st-century African-American musicians
Category:American male songwriters
Category:20th-century American saxophonists
Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States