In Memoriam: Saxophonist Jimmy Castor dies at 71

The leading front man of the band Jimmy Castor Bunch died Monday Jan. 16th in Henderson, NV. The cause of death of Castor is unknown, according to Prefix Magazine.

About Jimmy Castor

Castor began his career as a doo-woop singer before moving to a disco funk saxophonist in the early 60s. In the early 70s, Castor formed the Jimmy Castor Brunch, consisting of keyboardist/trumpeter Gerry Thomas, bassist Doug Gibson, guitarist Harry Jensen, conga player Lenny Fridle Jr., and drummer Bobby Manigault.

Soon after signing to RCA, the Jimmy Castor Bunch delivered several consecutive hits, one being “Troglodyte (Cave Man).” “Troglodyte (Cave Man)” was Castor’s biggest Hot 100 hit, reaching No. 6 in 1972. A slew of artists have sampled Castor’s top ten hit: Christina Aguilera (“Back in the Day”), N.W.A. (“Gangsta Gangsta,” “The Dawyz of Wayback”), Blackstreet (“Don’t Leave Me”), Wu-Tang Clan (“Wu Banga” (Remix), Madonna (“Into the Groove 2008”) and more.

More recently, Kanye West sampled Castor’s “I Just Wanna Stop” on “We Don’t Care,” off his freshman album, “The College Dropout.”

Castor was born on June 23, 1940.

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 Mercury Records didn’t 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.

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 Doug Gibson, guitarist Harry Jensen, conga player Lenny Fridle, Jr., and drummer Bobby Manigault.

Thomas also recorded with the Fatback Band, leaving TJCB in the 1980s to exclusively record with them.