Today’s classic song of the day is “Take a Letter Maria’ by R.B. Greaves. Released in autumn of 1969 by ATCO Records (I vividly remember that yellow and white label), “Take a Letter Maria” peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It ended up selling more than 2 1/2 million copies.
The song is about a guy who discovers his wife was unfaithful. He has his secretary take down a separation letter to his wife, and in doing so might just decide to ask the secretary out for dinner later. It goes like this:
When a man loves a woman, it’s hard to understand
That she would find more pleasure in the arms of another man
I never really noticed how sweet you are to me
It just so happens I’m free tonight
Would you like to have dinner with me?
Well, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife
Say I won’t be coming home, gotta start a new life
Oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife
Send a copy to my lawyer, gotta have a new life
“Take a Letter Maria” was both performed and written by soul singer R.B. Greaves. Born Ronald Bertram Greaves, an Army brat on a U.S. Army Air Force base in Guyana, he grew up on a Seminole Indian reservation in the U.S., moved to England in 1963, and built a career in both the UK and the Caribbean. “Take a Letter Maria” was Greaves’ debut U.S. recording and he followed it up with another top forty hit, a cover of the Bacharach/David tune, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me.” He later moved to Southern California, where he passed away in 2012, aged 68.
This track was recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio by the group of studio musicians called the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Those musicians included Barry Beckett on electric piano, Eddie Hinton and Jimmie Johnson on guitars, David Hood on bass, and Roger Hawkins on drums. Roger’s style was laid back but not lazy—and could confidently propel more up tempo numbers like this one. Most of the time he played a classic Ludwig set with a squeaky old Speed King pedal. Roger Hawkins passed away in 2021, aged 75.
