Oh no...... RIP Jimmy.

[Edited 1/18/12 6:08am]

Timmy84 said:

Hmm, I actually think he's older than he says. His recording career spanned six and a half decades. He wrote and performed the Teenagers hit "I Promise to Remember", which he also was the first to record (at fourteen I believe). Then when Frankie Lymon left, he became a member for a time before going off on his own. So he was actually 68 if I'm correct.

Either way what a tragic loss. Now this guy is really "unsung".

OMG...I remember posting this song last year here and having fun posting his music.. RIP Jimmy.

http://prince.org/msg/8/363963

[Edited 1/18/12 6:07am]

When black music was more open minded.

Gettin it in for Jimmy

Ah, Bertha Butt Boogie...R.I.P., and thanks for the laugh.

There were some great booty songs back in the day, Bertha Butt Boogie and Joe Tex's Ain't Gonna Bump No More With No Big Fat Woman.

Taking y'all back to 70s!

Rest In Peace

“YOU KNOW, we recorded the album for Columbia but they just did not want it. They were too busy with Sly and Chicago; Santana and Blood, Sweat & Tears, to see anything in the "It's Just Begun" album." So spake Jimmy Castor whose judgement of the album is backed up by its lofty position in today's R&B album chart in the States.


However, RCA — who happily and excitedly took over the Jimmy Castor Bunch — didn't even see the full potential in Jimmy. "They really thought the album was good, it was a strong concept album but they couldn't find a single on it and they were hoping for a hit album at best — then we would have to go into the studios again to cut a single. To help the album along a bit, we had a track from it — "You Better Be Good" released as a single but it didn't do anything. The album was put out at about the same time and at first it was nothing special as far as sales were concerned.

"The first bite came from Schwarz Brothers in Washington — they came in with an order for 2,000 one morning, followed it with 4,000 more on the same afternoon and then, the following morning, they were on again for 15,000. Then we knew we had an album and radio stations started picking it up. But it was as an album until calls kept coming through on "Troglodyte".

"Just as we were about to put out a new single — not from the album — RCA decided that there was too much going for "Troglodyte" to ignore it." Now, more than a million singles later, both Jimmy and RCA are more than happy that, they didn't ignore it. But Columbia must be smarting to see this happen right in front of their eyes.

"Yes, I do feel bitter about it," Jimmy quietly proclaimed. "I'm happy now of course, but at the time I felt very unhappy. The album was cut for them whilst I was under contract to them and they just didn't have enough faith to even put it out. So I asked that if I could raise enough money, would they let me buy back the tapes. They said yes so I went to RCA, who heard what we'd done and came up with the $20,000 needed. I went back to CBS with the money and literally carried those heavy, sixteen track tapes across the streets of Manhattan from CBS to RCA.

"As I said, they loved the album right from the off but they couldn't see a single in it. And now Columbia are saying that we re-mixed the tracks or changed the songs or something — but I tell you now, they are exactly the way they were when I walked out of their building with them. In fact, one or two of those very same cuts were issued on one of their custom labels as singles before I bought the tapes back.

"They did a similar thing when they let Aretha Franklin go, remember?"

However, though the album is called "It's Just Begun", this is something of an under-statement as far as Jimmy is concerned. Most Britons and Americans alike will be familiar with his "Hey Leroy" hit of some five years ago but one would have to go even further back to trace the natural source of this likeable young New Yorker, who was born in the city on June 22, 1943.

He grew up in the same neighbourhood as Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and it was with them that he got his first break in showbusiness. Jimmy was stand-in for Frankie and when Frankie was considering leaving the group, Jimmy was the natural successor. However, it never really matured either way and sadly Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers became the first R&B Supergroup to fade into total obscurity, leaving behind them a whole string of major hits, many of which sold in the region of three million singles — such as "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent" backed with "Teenage Love" and "Goody Goody"

Jimmy pays homage to the late Mr Lymon on the "It's Just Begun" album by including one song — "I Promise To Remember" — which dates back to the Frankie Lymon era and Jimmy even dresses it up in the style of the mid- and late-50's to make it authentic. It's this track that is the 'B' side to the "Troglodyte" single.

However, it wasn't until 1965 that Jimmy Castor recorded in his own right. Some friends of his were starting up a record company in Washington and Jimmy agreed to become their first artist.

He had three releases with Jet Set Records, all of which became regional hits in the Southern States. It also marked the professional teaming up of Jimmy and his life-long friend and business partner, John Pruitt, with whom he has written many of his hits and non-hits since. The very first Jimmy Castor record was one of their compositions, "It Isn't What You Got, It's What You Give".

A year after leaving Jet Set — the company went out of business — Jimmy was back via Smash Records. "I had gone to Sammy Davis Jr's office here in New York," Jimmy explained. "I met with Finis Henderson who in turn introduced me to Luchi de Jesus at Smash. And that's where our first hit came along — it was a sort of concept record I guess."

The record in question was "Hey Leroy Your Mama's Callin' You", a sort of Latin American instrumental with Jimmy interjecting every now and then the title lines. The melody was naturally enough a creation of Messrs Castor and Pruitt whilst Jimmy played sax and timbales on the record. Unfortunately, their stay at Smash was a very short one and the contract was terminated by mutual consent.

"It was all over the follow-up", Jimmy recalls. "The company wanted "Magic Saxophone" whilst I was in favour of "Hey Willy". We severed relations altogether with them when they went their own way. I sat out my contract time and they put out a couple of records on me." It's worth noting that "Magic Saxophone" never even got off the floor and sold extraordinarily badly following the hit.

Jimmy next showed up on a local New York label, Compass Records, who can also boast the birth of the Ohio Players. But the company is significant for Jimmy in that it marked the first time that he got credit for his own production. His most successful single during the one year stay — again the company went out of business shortly after — was "Soul Sister", penned by Jimmy and John, and quite a major Southern hit.

Jimmy then went to Capitol for a while and enjoyed another Southern hit with another of their own songs, "Hey Shorty!" Pts. 1 & 2.

It's curious that until this stage in his career, Jimmy's success had been somewhat restricted to the South, yet he was one hundred per cent a Northern boy. In 1971, he signed to Columbia and fully expected to finally break his home town market.

The switch across to RCA was in fact the move that gave him this sought after success since, as already stated, the album broke first in Washington, then on to New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and then a nationwide hit.

"Troglodyte" is credited to the Castor Bunch as far as composing rights are concerned and was never intended as a single. Secretly, Jimmy always felt strongly in favour of the record as a single but not strongly enough to stick his neck out until some DJ friends started calling him on it. RCA held back its release because it was generally accepted that this track was doing so much good for the album and it wasn't until the album passed 100,000 that they finally stopped stalling and released the golden track as a single.

Jimmy is really the creator of the idea if not the song: "I'd just been seeing one of those prehistoric movies when we were about to cut the album and we were fooling around in the studio, when I asked the guys to come up with some prehistoric music, neanderthal music. This they did and I just came up with the words — it was all on-the-spot sort of stuff and was only ever recorded as an album cut. But we all liked it a lot."

Now the Bunch have just completed their second album, "Phase Two" scheduled for September release. "It's a similar concept but a much stronger content," says Jimmy.

The Jimmy Castor Bunch consists of Jimmy, vocals, saxophone and timbales; Gerry Thomas, trumpet and piano; Doug Gibson, bass; Harry Jensen, guitar; Lenny Fridie, conga drums; and Bobby Maingault, drums.

When can we expect to see them in Europe? "Not for a while," Jimmy immediately retorted. "I don't plan to go outside of the States till we have three or four hits under our belt. You know that Otis Redding album, "Live In Europe"? — you know how the crowd yell out his name, O-T-I-S-R-E-D-D-I-N-G. Well, when I get that big — if I do — that's when I'll come. It's hard over there and I don't want to make the trip as an also-ran. But I hope I do make it."

Soul Music