R&B and soul singer Jim Gilstrap, who can be heard on the theme song for 1970s sitcom Good Times and Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” among many others, has died. Gilstrap died Saturday, July 18, from natural causes, his nephew Gil Gilstrap said in a statement to media outlets. He was 79.
Born in Daingerfield TX, on November 10, 1946, Gilstrap began his career in the music industry after serving in the Vietnam War. Early on, he performed with the Doodletown Pipers and The Cultures, but it was in the early 1970s that he began working with Stevie Wonder, becoming one of the backing vocalists in Wonder’s Wonderlove, on his Talking Book album, which won the Grammy Award for best male pop vocal performance. and Innervisions. He went on to sing, with Lani Groves, Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”.
Gilstrap went on to do session work in TV and film. He could heard weekly on the theme song for the 1970s sitcom Good Times, with Blinky Williams (You can hear it below). He also could be heard on Dave Grusin’s soul and jazz-funk track “I’ve Got You Where I Want You” in 1975, which was used in the Three Days of the Condor film soundtrack. He also sang the theme song for the 1990s cartoon series TaleSpin, and more recently, did an original song titled “A Lament” for the Japanese film Survive Style 5+
In 1975, he signed a recording contract with Chelsea Records and released his hit single Kenny Nolan’s “Swing Your Daddy” which hit No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart and reached No. 10 in the U.S. Billboard Black Singles chart.
Gilstrap also performed on Quincy Jones’ jazz-funk tune “Soul Saga (Song Of The Buffalo Soldier)”, from Jones’ Body Heat album.
Over his five-decade career, Gilstrap worked with numerous artists including Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, James Ingram, George Benson, Bill Withers, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins and many others.
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