{"id":2511656,"date":"2026-07-21T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2511656"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:32:09","slug":"legendary-singer-behind-good-times-theme-you-are-the-sunshine-of-my-life-dies-at-79-rip-to-jim-gilstrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/legendary-singer-behind-good-times-theme-you-are-the-sunshine-of-my-life-dies-at-79-rip-to-jim-gilstrap\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Singer Behind &#8216;Good Times&#8217; Theme &#038; &#8220;You Are the Sunshine of My Life,&#8221; Dies at 79: RIP to Jim Gilstrap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Jim Gilstrap, the R&amp;B singer and session musician behind the unforgettable Good Times theme and Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cYou Are The Sunshine Of My Life,\u201d has died.<\/p>\n<p>Gilstrap passed away on July 18 from natural causes, according to a statement his nephew Gil Gilstrap made to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/music\/music-news\/jim-gilstrap-dead-singer-good-times-theme-you-are-the-sunshine-of-my-life-1236651897\/?taid=6a5e625aacbde0000157639d&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. He was 79.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0319717\/?_ssoLoop=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gilstrap<\/a> was born in Daingerfield, TX, on November 10, 1946, and began his music career after serving in the Vietnam War. He performed early on with the Doodletown Pipers and The Cultures before breaking through in the early 1970s as a backing vocalist for Stevie Wonder\u2019s Wonderlove.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Falan.mercer.75%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0XAFzshjk3HeHFKwfjNGKBoGx2KigYWakKFgEX9X2vtMa7DmFaS7JyMZB1vQc4n9Sl&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"497\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He appeared on Wonder\u2019s acclaimed albums Talking Book, which won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and Innervisions. Gilstrap also sang alongside Lani Groves on Wonder\u2019s iconic \u201cYou Are The Sunshine Of My Life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gilstrap kept busy with session work across TV and film. Each week, audiences tuning into the 1970s sitcom Good Times (1974-79) were greeted by his unmistakable voice alongside Blinky Williams on the show\u2019s iconic <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/DsFpAEU0ziw?si=kOexIVbGQsAL7Pf1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">theme song<\/a>. That catchy, gospel-tinged earworm (\u201cKeepin\u2019 your head above water\/Making a wave when you can\u201d) was composed by Dave Grusin with lyrics by the legendary duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman\u2026 and it\u2019s still nearly impossible to get out of your head today.<\/p>\n<p>In 1975, Gilstrap signed with Chelsea Records and released \u201cSwing Your Daddy,\u201d written by Kenny Nolan. The single was a commercial success, reaching No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 10 on the U.S. Billboard Black Singles chart. Gilstrap also contributed vocals to Quincy Jones\u2019 jazz-funk track \u201cSoul Saga (Song Of The Buffalo Soldier)\u201d from Jones\u2019 Body Heat album.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-jim-gilstrap-left-his-mark-on-pop-culture\">How Jim Gilstrap Left His Mark on Pop Culture <\/h2>\n<p>Gilstrap\u2019s voice also graced numerous film and TV projects, from the Miami Vice Season 2 episode \u201cThe Fix\u201d to Dave Grusin\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Got You Where I Want You\u201d on the Three Days of the Condor soundtrack (1975). He also lent his talents to the beloved TaleSpin cartoon theme song and composed an original piece, \u201cA Lament,\u201d for the Japanese film Survive Style 5+.<\/p>\n<p>Over his 50-year career, Gilstrap worked alongside some of the biggest names in music, including Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Luther Vandross, and Anita Baker. He also sang on recordings by James Ingram, George Benson, Bill Withers, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, and many others.<\/p>\n<p>Gilstrap outlived all nine of his siblings and leaves behind his wife, Gloria, and his children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.suggest.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Gilstrap, the R&amp;B singer and session musician behind the unforgettable Good Times theme and Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cYou Are The Sunshine Of My Life,\u201d has died. Gilstrap passed away on July 18 from natural causes, according to a statement his nephew Gil Gilstrap made to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 79. Gilstrap was born in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2511657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[21800],"class_list":["post-2511656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Legendary-Singer-Behind-Good-Times-Theme-You-Are-the.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2511656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2511658,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511656\/revisions\/2511658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2511657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2511656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2511656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2511656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}