RIP Jimmy Castor. It Was A Stone Groove, My Man

Jimmy Castor passed away this week. I dearly loved this novelty song when it came out of the transistor radio back in the day:

Jimmy Castor, a singer, saxophonist, percussionist and bandleader whose novelty songs and funk grooves brought him wide popularity in the 1970s and were later sampled for hip-hop records, died of cardiac arrest Jan. 16 in a hospital in Henderson, Nev. He was 71. The death was confirmed by his son, Jimmy Castor Jr.

As leader of the Jimmy Castor Bunch, the elder Castor combined funk and adolescent humor with such novelty songs as “Troglodyte (Cave Man),” a No. 6 Billboard pop hit in 1972, and “The Bertha Butt Boogie” two years later. Mr. Castor’s records featured a recurring cast of characters, including a caveman who chants the mantra “gotta find a woman, gotta find a woman,” and the irrepressible, full-figured dancer Bertha Butt.(Washington Post)

You can see him perform it himself, too, if you prefer:


Lotta greezy bass playing back in the seventies. Thumb and slap sorta ruined it in the eighties.

Hope there are lots of cavewomen in heaven for you to dance with, Jimmy.