Brenton Wood

Brenton Wood is an American soul and R&B singer best known for a run of smooth, melodic hits in the late 1960s. Born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in Compton, California, he took his stage name from the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. He was drawn to music after being influenced by singers such as Sam Cooke and Jesse Belvin.

Wood's signature songs, «The Oogum Boogum Song» and «Gimme Little Sign», both released in 1967, became national hits and remain touchstones of the era's soul-pop sound — warm falsetto-tinged vocals, light instrumentation and catchy, sing-along hooks. Follow-up singles such as «Me And You» and «I Like The Way You Love Me» continued in the same easygoing, romantic vein.

Though his commercial peak was brief, his songs have had lasting cultural presence through frequent use in film, television and sampling, keeping his sound familiar to audiences well beyond the original soul era.