R. B. Greaves
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R. B. Greaves (born Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III, on 28 November 1944 in Georgetown, Guyana) is a singer of African and Seminole descent whose 1969 soul song, "Take a Letter Maria", went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The song has a distinct Latin flavor, complete with a mariachi-style horn section. The song is the story of a man who learns of his wife's infidelity the night before and dictates a letter of separation to "Maria", his ostensibly Hispanic secretary.
A nephew of Sam Cooke, he grew up on an Indian reservation, but moved to England in 1963. Greaves had built a career both in the Caribbean and in Great Britain, where he performed under the name Sonny Childe with his group The TNTs. His biggest hit had been recorded by both Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder before the author recorded it himself at the insistence of Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegün, who produced it. Greaves recorded a series of cover records as follow-ups, including Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me", James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale". All charted, as did his self-titled 1970 album. Greaves left the label in the 1970s when Ertegün could no longer spare time to work with him directly. He moved to MGM Records and then turned briefly to country music without much commercial success.
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