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Biography
Stevie Woods had a pretty brief moment in the sun. The guitarist signed with Cotillion Records and released Take Me To Your Heaven in 1981. It's actually a bit of a stretch to label Take Me as Soul music. It was actually one of the early "Brown Eyed Pop" releases that would rise in popularity the 80s from artists such as Lionel Richie and Atlantic Starr. Take Me boasted an A-Team of backing musicians, including Ray Parker, Toto's Steve Lukather and Chicago's Bill Champlin, with international producer Jack White at the helm. White had a talent for gathering great songs from around the world and working to be the first to release them in America with one of his proteges, such as Woods and Laura Branigan. And Take Me was so doggone melodic and hooky front to back that the White formula actually worked pretty well, despite rather bland production. Woods, sounding like a young, hip Johnny Mathis, breezed through the material beautifully. The album's first single, "Steal the Night," was a crossover smash, hitting the top 30 on the Pop charts and slightly lower on the Black Charts.
Woods followed up the next year with The Woman In My Life, a disappointing album that followed the formula of his debut -- perhaps even more laser-focused at adult contemporary audiences -- but with an overabundance of soft, rather faceless ballads such as the title cut, "Love You Back to Sleep" and "Never Gonna Let You Go" (later a hit for Sergio Mendes). It barely dented the charts. His third and final album, 1983's Attitude, was much better, boasting a nice remakes of Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" and Bobby Caldwell's "Loving You" and the solid pop/reggae track "State of Our Affairs." However, it failed to chart, and Woods' short recording career in the US was essentially over.
Woods apparently then moved permanently to Europe, where he continued to have some success on stage. Thanks to SoulTracks reader Justin who informed us that Woods continued to record in Germany and released a number of singles, including "Rock Me Baby" in 1986, "The One That You Love" in 1987, and "Everybody Sunshine" in 1994.
Ultimately, Stevie Woods was a talented singer with an very appealing vocal style that wasn't fully tested on meaty material. One wonders where his career could have gone had it taken a slightly more soulful direction.
By Chris Rizik
