When singer R.B. Greaves passed away in 2012 at the age of 69, most obituaries left out the last few decades of his life. He hadn’t actively recorded since the 70s, and it seemed to have led his life outside the public eye for much of that time.
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But the wonderful thing about a hit single is that it lends you immortality. As long as radio plays Greaves’ massive 1969 hit “Take A Letter Maria”, he’ll have a place in music history.
Greaves Grows
He was born Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III on an Air Force base in the Caribbean nation of Guyana. Greaves boasted some pretty impressive bloodlines for someone starting up a career in music. None other than Sam Cooke was his uncle.
Greaves split his time early in his career between recording in Great Britain and the Caribbean. For a while, he went under the stage name Sonny Childe. Successful as he was as a local act in those regions, American renown eluded him throughout most of the 60s.
He often recorded cover songs throughout his career, scoring minor hits after his breakthrough with “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me”, “Fire And Rain”, and “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”. But Greaves was also a writer, and he penned the song that would make his name among pop fans.
“Letter” Perfect
Greaves managed to come up with a nifty little twist on the jilted-lover scenario with “Take A Letter Maria”. It attracted the attention of no less a luminary than Ahmet Ertegun. Ertegun signed him to Atlantic Records and decided to produce the single himself.
As he often did, Ertegun used the ace musicians in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record the track. But this was a kind of test run for these particular players. They had broken away from FAME Studios, which, up to then, had been the main recording location for top artists looking for that Muscle Shoals sound.
Instead, “Take A Letter Maria” was recorded at the newly christened Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. With a core of incredible performers at his disposal and Ertegun twiddling the knobs, Reaves had everything he needed. He then went out and delivered with a performance both soulful and whimsical, and he ended up with a song that made it all the way to No. 2 on the pop charts.
Behind the Lyrics of “Take A Letter Maria”
The song starts in a typical fashion, with the narrator discovering his wife with someone new. “I kept my cool, I ain’t no fool,” he explains, and does the logical thing. He instructs his secretary (Maria) to write his wife to say he’s leaving. “Send a copy to my lawyer,” he says practically. “Gotta start a new life.”
In the second verse, he commiserates with Maria, wondering if he’s at fault for his “all work and no play” ethos. The big twist comes at the end of the final verse, when he starts to see Maria in a different light. “I never really noticed how sweet you are to me,” Greaves sings. “It just so happens I’m free tonight/Would you like to have dinner with me?”
The chirping trumpet and lilting groove make all of this drama go down smooth. We might not know much about a big chunk of R.B. Greaves’ life. But we know he delivered a moment of pop perfection on “Take A Letter Maria”.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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