Brenton Wood, the soul singer who sang 1967’s catchy “Oogum Boogum Track” and adopted it with the High 10 hit “Gimme Little Signal,” died Friday at his dwelling in Moreno Valley, CA. He was 83.
His managers Isabel and Manny Gallegos confirmed the information to a number of media shops, saying Wooden died peacefully in his sleep.
Born Alfred Smith on July 26, 1941, in Shreveport, LA, Wooden was raised in San Pedro simply south of Los Angeles. He started singing and taking part in piano at an early age at signed with Brent Data and later Wand Data however didn’t produce successful for both. He then switched to Double Shot Data in Hollywood, the place he recorded “The Oogum Boogum Track.”
A borderline-novelty tune fueled by Wooden’s candy falsetto and piano hook, the monitor went High 10 at L.A.’s main High 40 station KHJ-AM and dented the nationwide High 40 throughout the Summer season of Love. He would carry out it on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, however his signature music could be its follow-up.
“Gimme Little Signal” was a slow-building soul masterclass. Higher identified by its sung refrain lyric “simply gimme some form of signal, woman,” the midtempo monitor crashed the Billboard Scorching 100 in August 1967 and peaked at No. 9 just a few weeks later. It hit the UK singles chart 57 years in the past this week, and reached No. 8 after Wooden carried out it on the favored TV music sequence High of the Pops. It was among the many few Sixties pop singles to not point out the precise title in its lyrics.
Watch the official lyric video for the music right here and one for “The Oogum Boogum Track” beneath:
However “Gimme Little Signal” would mark Wooden’s profession zenith. He cracked the Billboard High 40 early 1968 with “Child You Bought It” and dented the Scorching 100 later that yr with “Lovey Dovey Kinda Lovin’.” Wooden’s sole charting album, 1967’s Oogum Boogum, peaked at No. 187 in 1967.
He went on to have a minor R&B hit with “Some Bought It, Some Don’t” in 1968 and would launch a variety of singles into the late Nineteen Seventies. “Come Softly to Me” was his solely different charting music, reaching No. 97 on Billboard’s R&B tally in 1978.
Wooden additionally appeared within the 1969 film Popdown. Info on survivors or a memorial had been incomplete.
Right here’s the official lyric video for “The Oogum Boogum Track”:
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