Texas Music News — July 22, 2026
Jim Gilstrap, the East Texas tenor behind TV’s “Good Times” theme and Stevie Wonder’s Wonderlove, died July 18 at 79. Gilstrap grew up in Daingerfield, a small East Texas town near the Arkansas line. His voice carried the weight of gospel choirs before it ever reached a studio microphone. First he served in the Navy Reserve during the Vietnam War. Then he came home and chased music full time. By the early 1970s, he joined Stevie Wonder’s backing group, Wonderlove. He sang on the landmark albums Talking Book and Innervisions. So that timing was no accident. Soul music in the early ’70s needed voices like his — warm, elastic, built for harmony.
Jim Gilstrap Opens the Door for “Sunshine”
Listen closely to “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” Gilstrap sang the song’s first two lines before Wonder came in. It’s like the porch light coming on before anyone steps outside. So he signed with Chelsea Records in 1975. That same year, he released “Swing Your Daddy.” The single hit No. 4 in the UK. It also cracked the Top 10 on the U.S. R&B chart. A year later, producers tapped him to co-lead the “Good Times” theme song. Millions of viewers heard his voice every week. But almost none of them learned his name.
That anonymity defined Jim Gilstrap’s career of session work. He sang behind Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson. His vocals also appear on Off the Wall and HIStory. His nephew, Geoffrey “Geoff Gil” Gilstrap, spoke for the family after his death. “To the world, Jim Gilstrap was a legendary voice,” he said. “To us, he was simply Uncle James — a beloved husband, uncle, mentor and friend.” Still, Gilstrap never forgot his roots, Geoffrey added, no matter how far his talent carried him.
Daingerfield never produced another star quite like Jim Gilstrap. People still stream that Stevie Wonder classic millions of times a day. His tenor opens it every time, uncredited and unmistakable. That East Texas gospel lineage runs deep. Rebert Harris, the Soul Stirrers pioneer, rests in nearby Trinity. He shaped that same tradition decades before Gilstrap ever left home. Gilstrap carried it west, and it never left him.
Details at Billboard
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