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  • Re: The Jimmy Castor Bunch, "I Promise to Remember" (1972)

    From Bruce@21:1/5 to Dean on Sun Jan 19 04:45:38 2025
    On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 3:11:48 +0000, Dean wrote:

    In 1956, Jimmy Castor & The Juniors did the original version of "I
    Promise to Remember." A cover (and far better) version by Frankie Lymon
    & The Teenagers became a hit.

    You've got this a little messed up here.

    In 1956 Jimmy Castor and a partner wrote a song called "I Remember" and
    he sang lead on he and his group's recording of the song. His group was
    Jimmy Castor and the Juniors. The record was released on Wing, which was
    a subsidiary of Mercury. Check the page at the link below and you will
    see that there is nothing on the label saying "To Remember."

    https://www.45cat.com/record/w90078x45

    A little later Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers recorded a version of
    Jimmy's song and changed the title to "I Promise To Remember." It became
    a top 10 R&B chart hit, but stalled at #57 on Billoard's Pop chart.
    Still, since then the song has been known by the title that Lymon's
    version used, "I Promise To Remember." So much so that even Jimmy
    himself used that title when he redid the song with the Jimmy Castor
    Bunch in 1972.

    I knew Jimmy Castor. He came into Relic several times while I was
    working there. Great guy. Very short and slim, I'd say he was like 5-5
    at the most and weighed about 135 pounds. He lived in Mahwah, NJ at that
    time. He was doing very well at this time because several of his
    recordings were being sampled in Hip Hop Records. He told us that he
    used to sue the artists and companies who used his stuff, and then
    usually settled out of court for like 20 or 30K a clip.

    https://ekladata.com/QefL9j9m8xI3hmhWXjwpc2K__Mw@609x448.jpg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZaGmVsVnlI

    --

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  • From DianeE@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 19 23:42:47 2025
    Not the singing, but the musical background and arrangement are a total,
    let's be kind and say, *homage* to the Jackson 5ive.

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  • From DianeE@21:1/5 to DianeE on Sun Jan 19 19:49:39 2025
    On 1/19/2025 7:48 PM, DianeE wrote:
    On 1/19/2025 7:13 PM, Bruce wrote:
    On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 23:42:47 +0000, DianeE wrote:

    Not the singing, but the musical background and arrangement are a total, >>> let's be kind and say, *homage* to the Jackson 5ive.

    Arrangement maybe, but not so much the musical background. All I hear is
    bass, guitar and percussion. The J5 records used several more
    instruments that were being played by James Jamerson and the other
    members of the Motown studio folks. Jimmy used a very minimalist combo
    here.

    --
    ---------
    He was doing well, as you said, but not as well as Berry Gordy. Couldn't afford the Funk Brothers.  But the rhythm, the countermelody, the arrangement, definitely imitates the style of "I Want You Back" and "ABC."
    ----------
    ...and quite a contrast to "Troglodytes."

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  • From Bruce@21:1/5 to DianeE on Mon Jan 20 00:13:12 2025
    On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 23:42:47 +0000, DianeE wrote:

    Not the singing, but the musical background and arrangement are a total, let's be kind and say, *homage* to the Jackson 5ive.

    Arrangement maybe, but not so much the musical background. All I hear is
    bass, guitar and percussion. The J5 records used several more
    instruments that were being played by James Jamerson and the other
    members of the Motown studio folks. Jimmy used a very minimalist combo
    here.

    --

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  • From DianeE@21:1/5 to Bruce on Sun Jan 19 19:48:33 2025
    On 1/19/2025 7:13 PM, Bruce wrote:
    On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 23:42:47 +0000, DianeE wrote:

    Not the singing, but the musical background and arrangement are a total,
    let's be kind and say, *homage* to the Jackson 5ive.

    Arrangement maybe, but not so much the musical background. All I hear is bass, guitar and percussion. The J5 records used several more
    instruments that were being played by James Jamerson and the other
    members of the Motown studio folks. Jimmy used a very minimalist combo
    here.

    --
    ---------
    He was doing well, as you said, but not as well as Berry Gordy.
    Couldn't afford the Funk Brothers. But the rhythm, the countermelody,
    the arrangement, definitely imitates the style of "I Want You Back" and
    "ABC."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bruce@21:1/5 to DianeE on Mon Jan 20 00:55:11 2025
    On Mon, 20 Jan 2025 0:49:39 +0000, DianeE wrote:

    On 1/19/2025 7:48 PM, DianeE wrote:
    On 1/19/2025 7:13 PM, Bruce wrote:
    On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 23:42:47 +0000, DianeE wrote:

    Not the singing, but the musical background and arrangement are a total, >>>> let's be kind and say, *homage* to the Jackson 5ive.

    Arrangement maybe, but not so much the musical background. All I hear is >>> bass, guitar and percussion. The J5 records used several more
    instruments that were being played by James Jamerson and the other
    members of the Motown studio folks. Jimmy used a very minimalist combo
    here.

    --
    ---------
    He was doing well, as you said, but not as well as Berry Gordy. Couldn't
    afford the Funk Brothers. 

    I was talking about the 1980s and 1990s when he was doing well off of
    samples. In 1972 though he was recording for RCA, and he could have used
    more musicians on that track if he had wanted to.

    You can also say that The Jackson 5 were very influenced by the sound of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, where the lead singer had a high voice
    and was the youngest one in the Group, like Michael. So basically when
    Castor was influenced by their sound it was coming around full circle.

    --

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