R.B. Greaves, who painted a picture of moving on from his cheating wife in the 1969 hit Take a Letter Maria, passed away last Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 68.
RB Greaves
Greaves, born Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III, had an multi-national background as a child, being born at the Air Force Base in Georgetown, Guyana and moving with his family to a Seminole Indian reservation. At the age of 20, he moved to England where he started his career under the name of Sonny Childe with the group the TNTs.
A song Greaves had written, Take a Letter Maria, had been recorded by both Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder before Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records insisted that Greaves record it himself. His deubt single went to number 2 on the U.S. Singles chart and 10 on the R&B Singles at the end of 1969, selling 2.5 million copies.
Greaves started 1970 with a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song Always Something There to Remind Me which made it to 27 on the Hot 100 and 3 on Adult Contemporary. It would be his last move into the higher parts of the chart as he followed with two covers (Fire & Rain and Whiter Shade of Pale) and an original (Georgia Took Her Back) all of which peaked in the 80’s.
Greaves left Atlantic soon after and, in 1977, signed with Bareback Records where he had a minor R&B hit with Margie, Who’s Watching the Baby (1977/#66 R&B). It was his last charting record. He left the music business and worked at a technology business for the rest of his life.
He is survived by his son Shiloh.
