In August of 1969 a singer entered Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama and began to lay down tracks for his new album. The legendary studio, opened six months earlier by a group of session musicians unhappy with their previous employer, had yet to make any great impact and needed a hit. The singer, R. B. Greaves, already had an album and several singles under his belt but was a complete unknown in the US.
Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III was born on a US Army base in Guyana in 1943. He grew up on a Seminole Indian reservation in the US and then moved to England in 1963. It was there that he began to perform under the name Sonny Childe. The vocal resemblance to his uncle, Sam Cooke, was noticeable especially when he performed covers of Cooke’s hits. That information looked good on the marquees too. Whether he really was related or not is up for debate. Together with the band he put together he was pretty hot stuff on the UK nightclub scene for a while. They released an album and a few singles together as Sonny Childe and TNT. Though it never made a dent in the charts the self-penned Heartbreak is a certified dancefloor-melter.
He soon dropped the band and returned to the US where he would release a couple more singles. Check out Love is in the Air for a superb Northern Soul spin. Unfortunately, stardom was still out of reach.
R. B. Greaves then came to the attention of Ahmet Ertegun, visionary co-founder of Atlantic Records who launched the careers of legends like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. Ertegun signed Greaves to his label and personally oversaw production of his self-titled US debut album. The album features several covers, but Greaves wrote half the tracks including one which would be the first single.
Take a Letter Maria tells the story of a man’s response after discovering his wife’s infidelity. There’s many a singer that’d go straight for the gun, or the bottom of a whiskey bottle. Greaves instead calmly drafts a letter and ensures his lawyer is copied on the correspondence. Then he deftly makes his move on his secretary, while all but admitting his workaholic ways caused the breakdown of his marriage. Smooth.
The lyrics are complimented by a catchy Latin influenced pop soul rhythm. Mariachi horns provide the standout hook that would send the track hurtling up the charts. Released in September 1969 the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the end of November. Wedding Bell Blues, by The 5th Dimension was number one. By the end of the year, it sold one million copies, earning gold record certification from the RIAA. It went on to sell more than a million more.
Take a Letter Maria was the first hit to come out of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Many more hits were to come. Coincidentally while Greaves recorded Take a Letter Maria during the day, The Rolling Stones were in the same studio at night recording Wild Horses and Brown Sugar.
These hits have continued to resonate with current audiences but Take a Letter Maria is almost forgotten. I remember hearing this track constantly on the radio in the 80s and 90s. It hasn’t had much impact on pop culture this century though. It’s the type of track that would kill if it appeared in a Tarantino flick but it’s yet to have a viral moment. Maybe it’s too outdated for that.
Nowadays the song comes across as charmingly quaint. The days of dictating letters and hitting on secretaries are over. Artificial Intelligence would now be the secretary writing the letter. But people have been having relationships with chatbots lately so maybe it’s not that irrelevant.
R. B. Greaves continued to write and record, but never reached the success he had with Maria. Another single from the same album came close. His cover of (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me just missed the Top 20. He died September 2012 at 68 years old of prostate cancer.