JIMMY CASTOR dies in Las Vegas at 71

Jimmy Castor, a funk and soul saxophonist, singer and songwriter whose tune, "It's Just Begun," was sampled by hip hop artists died of apparent heart failure in a Las Vegas hospital, family members said Tuesday. He was 71.

Castor formed the Jimmy Castor Bunch in 1972 and signed with RCA releasing several successful albums and singles. The group reached the peak of their commercial success in 1972 with the release of their album, It's Just Begun, which featured two hit singles: the title track and "Troglodyte (Cave Man). Castor continued the trend in 1975 with "The Bertha Butt Boogie" and later recorded "E-Man Boogie," "King Kong," "Bom Bom," and "Potential."

Many of the group's tunes have been heavily sampled in films and in hip-hop. Most notably are the saxophone hook and groove from "It's Just Begun" and the spoken word intro and groove from "Troglodyte" (namely, "What we're gonna do right here is go back...").