Jim Gilstrap, Voice Behind 'Good Times' Theme And Stevie Wonder Classic, Dead At 79

The R&B singer and session musician whose falsetto anchored some of the most recognizable recordings of the 1970s died this week, leaving a credit list most frontmen never matched.

Jim Gilstrap, R&B singer and in-demand session vocalist, died at age 79.
Gilstrap sang on the theme song for CBS sitcom Good Times, which ran from 1974 to 1979.
He performed backing vocals on Stevie Wonder's 1972 hit 'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.'
His session work spanned decades and crossed pop, soul, and television soundtrack credits.
No cause of death or funeral arrangements have been publicly announced as of July 20, 2026.

Jim Gilstrap, the R&B singer whose voice is baked into the opening bars of the Good Times theme and the backing track of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life,” died this week at 79. No cause of death has been publicly disclosed.

Gilstrap was a fixture of the Los Angeles session world during the 1970s, the kind of vocalist whose name rarely appeared on the marquee and whose voice appeared everywhere else. The Good Times theme — “Temporary Layoffs,” “Easy Credit Rip-offs,” the full recitation of 1970s American precarity — aired on CBS from 1974 to 1979 and has not left the cultural rotation since.

The Wonder credit came earlier. “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” was released in March 1972 on Talking Book and went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that May. Gilstrap sang the second verse. The record won the 1974 Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

His wider discography includes session work across soul, pop, and television soundtracks across three decades — a body of work that accumulated largely without a solo hit to anchor the public memory of his name.

The Grammy is in the winner’s name. The voice is on the record.