Musician Jimmy Castor, 64, Dead

Musician Jimmy Castor, whose career and musical styles spanned from doo wop to hip hop, passed away at the age of 64. Details are still forthcoming. As rock n roll and its many offshoots became part of the American landscape, Castor was at its forefront. He wrote the doo wop standard I Promise To Remember and later became a member of The Teenagers after Frankie Lymon left the group. Castor’s solo hit, Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Calling You was part of the Latin boogaloo movement that exploded in the mid 60s. As the leader of The Jimmy Castor Bunch, Jimmy scored with the million seller Troglodyte, its sequel Bertha Butt Boogie, E-Man Boogie, King Kong, Bom Bom (which predated the Jamaican dancehall movement by nearly 15 years) and Potential, just to name a few. Jimmy was one of the few artists that bridged the gap between funk, soul, disco, fans, because his music dipped into all of those genres – sometimes all within one song. When the breakdancing battles would reach their peak, It’s Just Begun was the song that separated the best dancers from the wannabes.

Producer, writer, arranger, bandleader, businessman: It was no wonder that Jimmy Castor was called ‘The Everything Man’.

A snippet of ‘It’s Just Begun’ in ‘Flashdance’:

A clip from ‘The Freshest Kids’ which is a nod to ‘Flashdance’, but also uses ‘It’s Just Begun’:

The often sampled ‘Troglodyte’: