“The Oogum Boogum Song” (Brenton Wood)

Your nonsensical, possibly pornographic Carolina beach music song of the day is “The Oogum Boogum Song” by Brenton Wood. This track was released in April of 1967 and rose to #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #19 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Singles chart.

“The Oogum Boogum Song” is about a guy who’s so obsessed with a certain young lady he has to express himself in nonsense words: “Oogum oogum, boogum boogum, boogum now, baby you’re castin’ your spell on me.” He goes on to list everything about the woman that puts him in a trance—her high heeled boots with her hip hugger suit, her cute mini skirt with her brother’s sloppy shirt, her bell bottom pants and trench coat, and her big earrings, long hair, and “things.” She’s definitely out of sight.

The possibly pornographic part comes at the end, where Mr. Wood is ostensively singing “I says who got the blues, says who got the blues” several times in a row. To my ears, and to the ears of many others, he’s really singing “suck out the pussy.” Go ahead and listen to it and tell that I’m wrong. I think young Brenton slipped one by everybody back then.

Musically, “The Oogum Boogum Song” is just a repeated four-bar phrase in a steady mid-tempo groove . It falls under the aegis of Carolina beach music, which is completely different from the West Coast surf music popularized by the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean and found in all those beach party movies I wrote about in yesterday’s classic song of the day. Carolina beach music is a mix of pop and R&B made for dancing, in particular that regional dance called the Shag. In its pure form, beach music is more of a casual blues shuffle, exemplified by tracks like “I Love Beach Music” by the Embers and “Ms. Grace” by the Tymes. Over time the genre expanded to include straighter grooves at the right strollable tempo, like the one in “The Oogum Boogum Song.” It’s definitely a laid-back feel, whether straight or shuffled.

“The Oogum Boogum Song” was written by Mr. Wood, under his real name of Alfred Jesse Smith. Even though he fell under the Carolina beach music label, he was actually born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and grew up in Compton, California. In addition to writing and performing, Mr. Wood was also a producer and even owned his own record label for a time in the ’70s. He had a number of R&B hits in the 1960s, the big ones being this one, “Gimme Little Sign” (#9 on the Hot 100), and “Baby You Got It” (#34), all released in 1967. He kept recording through the 1980s and performing some after that. At the age of 81 he hasn’t performed live in awhile, but at least he’s still with us. I can dig it.