Customer Reviews

The Best of The Jimmy Castor Bunch: The Everything Man

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jimmy Castor's tunes are so funny at times that you might want to consider it novelty stuff, but the music, driven by his funky (often Latin/Caribbean Tinged) timbale/percussion work (nice clav and wa wa too !) is so funky, and the grooves are so slick and bumping, it is clear that this is solid funk/party music from the vaults.... Everyone from DJs (who've been sampling it galore since the early days of rap) to collectors have known this for years especially hunting down copies of the tripped out (until its reissue almost impossible to find) "Its Just Begun".

From his tales of the Butt Sisters, the troglodyte hunting for his woman, and the cartoonish cast of superheroes, BIG women (Bertha Butt, Betty Butt and Batsheba Butt), LeRoy and all the other city folk - - tunes such as "The Bertha Butt Boogie" and "Hey Leroy (Yo Momma's The Creature from The Black Lagoon") stick with you, and is the type of stuff that suddenly pops up in your head in the middle of work and WON'T get out of your head until you go home and put it on (maybe you even get caught singing it allowed at work !) From "Bomp Bomp Bomp-a bump" to "Koma-sami ! Koma-sami Kong... whaaa whaaaa whooo whoooo whaaaa wa whooooo" and musn't we forget "The Beast ! Don't Do That... The Beast ! Don't Do That ! Don't Do That ! Don't Do That... woeeaaaahahahahahah...." lay these grooves down at a party, and everyone will either be trippin', dancin' or rolling on the floor laughing. Liner notes are great and revealing as well... check out the last track... you won't believe it !

TIP : If you dig the e-man's groove, check out Bohannon, Chuck Brown's Greatest Hits and if you're really venturous some Blowfly.

Gotta go, my Momma's callin'.... Me like ! ! !

....deep, deep funk from the 70s-- although no one would even claim to being Berta or her sistas we usta jam on these at our campus parties. And uh, Hey Leroy! Digs the great Overton Lloyd cover! My favorite JCB tune has gotta be "Potential" with Jerimiah Grim-es from North Carolina and Jimmy's ("Weh-wa-Weh-Hah") Ray Charles. But this CD is packed with Jurassic sized funk like "Troglodyte" and "King Kong". Hey! Get it now! And miss out on this fabuloso product!

I first heard the "King Kong" song back in '76, when I was about five years old. I finally got a copy of the album on CD. As my wife can affirm, I am not a dancer. She never heard of Jimmy Castor before. When I got the CD and put it in the machine, the gong sound brought it all back to me. I started shakin' and groovin' it; she thought I was possessed!

Thank you, Jimmy!

The Everything Man.....what can I say, this CD is a fine collection of The Jimmy Castor Bunch, it is a must for your classic "Soul" collection......

IT WAS HARD TO FIND TROGLODYTE BUT I WASN'T DISAPPOINTED WHEN I GOT THE CD. IT SOUNDS JUST THE WAY I REMEMBER IT.

Folks, if you were not a kid or a teenager in the late 60s and mid 70s, I will ask you to brace yourself before listening to this musical madness and funky foolishness! This stuff is so crazy and bizarre that your jaws will drop to the floor in utter shock upon hearing it the first time and you will not believe what comes out of the mouth and mind of Jimmy Castor-the Fool Man of Funk! Then one of three things will happen. You will laugh yourself silly, run and snatch this off of your CD player, or shake it to his comedic funk!

"Troglodyte" (Gotta have a woman, Gotta Have a woman), "The Bertha Butt Boogie", "King Kong," and the "Leroy" cycle among others, all show that our man was the heir apparent to the Super-lunatic madman supreme, sultan of storytelling and saxophone and Grandfather of Soul Louis Jordan in creating some of the craziest and irresistably dancefloor friendly story-songs of all time. Sadly, he's been neglected by R&B historians and oldies radio, but pick up this CD and forget your troubles with the clown prince of Soul. As he says in Bertha Butt, "With no question........"

For a guy who started out singing street-corner Doo-Wop, and recorded the self-penned I Promise To Remember with his group The Juniors for the Wing label in 1956 when he was all of 13 [Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers would
have the hit version], he certainly branched out in many directions.

After further unsuccessful discs for the Clown, Jet-Set, Winley and Decca labels, and playing sax on Dave "Baby" Cortez's 1962 hit Rinky Dink, he came up with the Latin calypso sound of Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Calling You for the Smash label in 1966, taking it to # 16 R&B/# 31 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in early 1967 b/w Ham Hocks Espanol under the billing "Jimmy Castor."

He was off and running, right? Wrong. It would be six long years before he made another chart appearance, this time with RCA Victor and his new group, The Jimmy Castor Bunch (keyboardist Gerry Thomas, Doug Gibson on bass, guitarist Harry Jensen, Lenny Fridie, Jr. on the congas, and drummer Bobby Marigault). But what a return. The ferocious discotheque classic Troglodyte (Cave Man) shot to # 4 R&B and # 6 Hot 100 in the summer of 1972, b/w a new version of his original song I Promise To Remember. And NOW he was off and running, right? Well, not exactly.

It would be another year before Soul Serenade managed a weak # 72 R&B b/w Tribute To Jimi: Purple Haze/Foxy Lady in July 1973 (neither of which is in the release). A year and a half later he turned up at Atlantic where, if not enjoying exactly what you could call spectacular success, he nevertheless would post nine more R&B hits, two of which would cross over to the Hot 100.

Leading off with what would turn out to be his best there, The Bertha Butt Boogie - Part 1 went to #16 Hot 100/# 22 R&B in early 1975 b/w Part 2, while in November, King Kong - Part 1 topped out at # 23 R&B/# 69 Hot 100. After that it would be hard going as Supersound struggled to a # 47 R&B in April 1976 b/w Drifting, and in September Bom Bom finished at a disappointing # 97 R&B b/w What's Best? billed to The Jimmy Castor Bunch Featuring The Everything Man. Well might he, and Atlantic, have been asking "what's best?" because in November all he could get out of Everything Is Beautiful To Me was a weak # 67 R&B b/w Magic In The Music

Clearly there wasn't any magic in hus music, although a brief glimmer of hope followed the # 28 R&B/# 101 Hot 100 "bubble under" of Space Age in early 1977 b/w Dracula Part II. Unfortunately it was back to mediocrity and another full year before Maximum Stimulation flamed out at # 82 R&B b/w It Was You in February 1978. Another full year then passed before his final hit under the billing The Jimmy Castor Bunch, when Don't Do That! made it to # 50 R&B in July 1979 b/w Part 2 for the Cotillion label.

In 1980, now with Long Distance Records and recording once again as simply Jimmy Castor, he tried a cover of the Elvis Presley # 2 hit from 1962, Can't Help Falling In Love With You, only to see it barely make the Top 100 R&B at # 93 b/w Stay With Me (Spend The Night), generously listed by Billboard as a "follow-along" hit. And he wouldn't reappear on the charts until 1984 with the Dream label when Amazon pooped out at # 84 R&B b/w She's An Amazon in September, followed in January 1985 by It Gets To Me, a # 81 R&B b/w an instrumental version of the A-side.

Three years later he would make his final chart appearance when Love Makes A Woman hit # 29 R&B in May 1988 b/w All And All, billed to Joyce Sims featuring Jimmy Castor.

It would have been nice [and hence another star] had they included the two missing Castor Bunch hits, Everything Is Beautiful To Me and Maximum Stimulation. I mean, if you're going to include 17 selections, why not two more?

As it is, this is a tidy little compilation of the offerings of one of the era's most versatile artists, as you will immediately realize upon listening to selections like Bom Bom [calypso], the R&B sax sounds on Maggie and, of course, his monster hit Troglodyte.

Ihave always loved Jimmy castor i really grew up with his music
but it been hard for me to find one of my favorite two albums
E-MAN GROVIN with that [awesome] song I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU
with that crying sax and EVERYTHING IS BEAUIFUL TO ME
Some need to print those up also

The Jimmy Castor Bunch had a dynamic salsa/soul/funk sound that gets better with each listen. This guy Castor wrote hit songs with doowop pioneers The Teenagers and he created the legendary 70s B-boy anthem Its Just Begun and he introduced us to the Butt Sisters-three great sisters Bertha, Batsheba and Betty-whom I've had the pleasure of meeting. The highlights here are plentiful and his wonderful band will set you in the boogie zone: Experience "Dont Do That", "Troglodyte", and "Supersound".

I have listened to Jimmy Castor Bunch since I was a kid back in the 70's. I've enjoyed all of his music. There is one particular song that I cant get. Its called E-man or Everything Man. I remember the album cover has a black guy in a Superman type suit with an E on his chest. I wonder if its no longer in print.
If anyone can help me please email me anibaltejada@avaya.com
or barrioboricua@ij.net
I would be extremely appreciative since this is the only song missing from my Jimmy Castor Bunch collection. And its one of his best.

Archie Tejada/Tampa FL