Post by Rob Durkee on Oct 2, 2012 20:45:58 GMT -5
By ROCKIN' ROBIN
We've had our share of hit songs about marriage infidelity over the years. Among them, we've had the #1 hits "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel in 1968; "Me And Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul in late 1972/early 1973; and "Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor in 1977.
And then there was "Take A Letter Maria." The song had a couple of unique twists to it. A man discovers his wife is cheating on him when he gets home after a long day at work. However, he doesn't tell her they're through verbally. He instead leaves the dirty work to his secretary. Then he quickly discovers a new love interest. His secretary!
R.B. Greaves, who wrote and had the Top 5 hit with "Take A Letter Maria" in late 1969, died on Thursday, September 27, 2012, in the Los Angeles area. He was 67. News of Greaves' passing was courtesy of Ron Smith's Oldies.com web site as well as Twitter messages from Greaves' son and nephew. However, there was no cause of death released.
According to Wikipedia, Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves was born November 28, 1944 on an Air Force base in Georgetown, Guyana. His uncle was Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Sam Cooke. Greaves grew up on a Seminole indian reservation in the USA, but moved to England around 1963. He'd started his music career as Sonny Childe with his group, the TNT's. Greaves' early releases came on the Decca and Polydor labels. His popularity started in the UK and the Carribean.
Although Greaves wrote "Take A Letter Maria," he didn't record it initially. Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder did though it's not known who exactly did it first. Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun insisted that Greaves record the song. So much so, that Ertegun produced it for Atlantic's subsidiary Atco label.
"Take A Letter Maria" would peak at #3 on the Cash Box pop chart the weekend of December 6, 1969. The top two songs that weekend were "Something" (the Beatles) and "And When I Die" (Blood, Sweat And Tears).
Greaves' followup release, his remake of "Always Something There To Remind Me," would reach #22 in early 1970. He had three more releases--all also on the Atco label--in 1970 but all of them failed to make the Top 40. They were "Fire And Rain" (#65), "Georgia Took Her Back" (#92) and "Whiter Shade Of Pale" (#80).
Greaves would eventually work for a technology company in Los Angeles.
We've had our share of hit songs about marriage infidelity over the years. Among them, we've had the #1 hits "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel in 1968; "Me And Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul in late 1972/early 1973; and "Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor in 1977.
And then there was "Take A Letter Maria." The song had a couple of unique twists to it. A man discovers his wife is cheating on him when he gets home after a long day at work. However, he doesn't tell her they're through verbally. He instead leaves the dirty work to his secretary. Then he quickly discovers a new love interest. His secretary!
R.B. Greaves, who wrote and had the Top 5 hit with "Take A Letter Maria" in late 1969, died on Thursday, September 27, 2012, in the Los Angeles area. He was 67. News of Greaves' passing was courtesy of Ron Smith's Oldies.com web site as well as Twitter messages from Greaves' son and nephew. However, there was no cause of death released.
According to Wikipedia, Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves was born November 28, 1944 on an Air Force base in Georgetown, Guyana. His uncle was Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Sam Cooke. Greaves grew up on a Seminole indian reservation in the USA, but moved to England around 1963. He'd started his music career as Sonny Childe with his group, the TNT's. Greaves' early releases came on the Decca and Polydor labels. His popularity started in the UK and the Carribean.
Although Greaves wrote "Take A Letter Maria," he didn't record it initially. Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder did though it's not known who exactly did it first. Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun insisted that Greaves record the song. So much so, that Ertegun produced it for Atlantic's subsidiary Atco label.
"Take A Letter Maria" would peak at #3 on the Cash Box pop chart the weekend of December 6, 1969. The top two songs that weekend were "Something" (the Beatles) and "And When I Die" (Blood, Sweat And Tears).
Greaves' followup release, his remake of "Always Something There To Remind Me," would reach #22 in early 1970. He had three more releases--all also on the Atco label--in 1970 but all of them failed to make the Top 40. They were "Fire And Rain" (#65), "Georgia Took Her Back" (#92) and "Whiter Shade Of Pale" (#80).
Greaves would eventually work for a technology company in Los Angeles.
