Page 75 - ION Indie Magazine November December 2019 Issue

I’ve photographed Brenton Wood once before about 12
years ago. I got to meet the man and pick his brain…super
cool cat! This time around, Brenton was a little older and a
bit slower, but still performed like he was in his twenties. His
music was super sweet and smooth…so relaxing and
enjoyable.

Brenton Wood's charmingly unpredictable phrasing and his
infectious sense of good times made the smooth uptown
soul of "The Oogum Boogum Song" and "Gimme Little
Sign" into hits in 1967. Despite his skill as a pop-soul
vocalist, Wood was never able to match such heights
again, yet those two songs became genuine R&B classics
of their era.

Born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shreveport, LA, Brenton
Wood moved west to San Pedro, CA as a child. After
learning how to play piano, he began forming vocal groups
inspired by Sam Cooke and Jesse Belvin. One of these
groups, Little Freddie & The Rockets, recorded a single in
1958.

While he was studying at Compton College, he assumed
the name Brenton Wood, naming himself after his home
county. Wood formed The Quotations during college, but
soon after graduation he became a solo act. Signing with
Double Shot Records, Wood had a hit single in the spring
of 1967 with "The Oogum Boogum Song," which reached
number 19 on the R&B charts and number 34 in pop. It was
quickly followed by "Gimme Little Sign," which climbed to
number nine on the pop charts and matched its
predecessor's R&B position.

It was a promising start to a career, but Wood wasn't able
to follow it through. "Baby You Got It" stalled in the bottom
reaches of the pop and R&B Top 40 in early 1968 and
"Some Got It, Some Don't" failed to make the pop charts
later that year.

Wood continued to perform and even recorded a duet
with Shirley Goodman, but he wasn't able to reach the
charts again until 1977 when "Come Softly to Me"
registered in the lower reaches of the R&B Top 100.
Following its release, Wood became part of the oldies soul
circuit. In 2001, he finally returned with an album of new
material, “This Love Is for Real.”