A Story Song with a Happy(ish) Ending! “Take a Letter, Maria”

Many story songs end with an ironic twist or a moment of tragedy or despair.

But one of my favorite story songs, from 1969 ends happily, though again with an ironic twist. Here’s the video of RB Greaves’s “Take a Letter, Maria,” and check out his cool leisure suit!

The melody here is upbeat R&B with Latin infusions, especially the bursts from the mariachi horn section. Greaves was the nephew of legendary R&B singer Sam Cooke, and his confident voice echoes with that smooth soul tradition. The bright melody and voice contrast ironically with the melancholy story, which is about a hard-working man who discovers his wife “in the arms of another man.”

Structure

Let’s start with the story structure. The song opens with the singer actually telling the story to an audience– his loyal secretary Maria. He jumps right into the action, and in a few lines, explains the conflict situation. Apparently last night, after working very late, he got home and saw his wife with her lover. He packs up and leaves and vows not to go back.

The chorus (repeated after each “act” of the story) repeats and fulfills the title. He asks Maria repeatedly to “take a letter”– a reference back to the pre-computer days, when a secretary with a notebook would jot down a dictated letter in shorthand, then go type it on her (probably manual) typewriter. He never actually dictates the entire letter, as he keeps breaking off to, well, whine. That’s okay, because great secretaries like Maria were accustomed to getting the barest instructions, writing the letter themselves, then presenting it for a signature.

The chorus also keeps repeating the letter should go to his wife, and a copy made for his lawyer, so the next step will be filing for divorce. This will become important in the end… we know that he has separated from his wife, and it’s not his fault.

In elliptical fashion, the singer advances the story while returning always to the betrayal. In the middle, he stops complaining to express appreciation to Maria. But then he circles back to his grievance, and tells more about his life, about how working hard and working nights “has just cost me a wife.”

The last verse provides the change, the twist, and the happy ending. He starts by repeating his miserable experience, then breaks off – as if he’s seeing her for the first time—to confess, “I never really noticed how sweet you are to me.” Then he strikes out into the future, and asks her for a date. There’s the happy ending—however unhappy the inciting event is.

As a child of the 60s, I am reminded of the era of the “Mad Men” TV show, when bosses relied practically and emotionally on their underpaid overworked secretaries, and often made advances. We can just hope that Maria is free to accept or reject the invitation as she wishes! But for the singer, it’s a happy ending, because he recognizes a “good woman” now that he’s had the experience of a “bad woman.”

Okay, it’s kind of retrogressive and misogynistic and all that, but it’s a glimpse of life when “men were men and women were handmaidens.” But maybe we can tell from the singer’s tentativeness and new appreciation of Maria, that maybe it will be a happy ending for her too.

Theme

This is another story song where a major theme is “contrast”, and this is developed in several ways. First, the jaunty brass-vivid music is in conflict with the very lugubrious story. Then there’s the juxtaposition of the past which is narrated in the verses (“Last night as I got home”) and the present in the chorus (“Take a letter, Maria”).

There’s also the misogynistic “madonna/whore” contrast, with the saintly maternal Maria—named after the Blessed Virgin herself!—and the slutty wife. The distinction goes further—the wife is presumably a lady of leisure who neglects her husband, while Maria is a hard-working secretary who serves him faithfully.

There’s also the theme of injustice, common when there’s a cheating spouse. The singer works hard, staying at the office till ten pm, complaining, “Was I wrong to work nights to try to build a good life? All work and no play has just cost me a wife.” The word “cost” with its connotation of payment hints at the mercenary aspect of a relationship he probably once considered “love”.  It’s hard to avoid the suggestion that he didn’t get what he’d paid for…. not to diminish the hurt he undoubtedly feels.

“Revelation” is a motif (a recurring pattern) here. He arrives home and his wife’s infidelity is revealed. But then he goes to work the next day, and the goodness of Maria is revealed to him. He sees her with new eyes: “You’ve been many things, but most of all a good secretary to me. And it′s times like this I feel you′ve always been close to me./I never really noticed how sweet you are to me.”

As I typed that, I had a revelation of my own. His repetition of “to me” at the end of each of those lines about Maria is significant. Maybe he does see her now with new eyes, but he sees her entirely in relation to himself– “what you are to me… for me.”

Oh, well, here I am hearing this 60s song with 2025 ears.  Let me time travel back to 1969. Now I can hear RB sing, “It just so happens I’m free tonight. Would you like to have dinner with me?” and believe that Maria’s always been in love with her boss, and that this is her happy ending.

Take A Letter, Maria by R.B. Greaves
Last night as I got home, about a half past ten,
There was a woman I thought I knew in the arms of another man.
I kept my cool, I ain′t no fool, let me tell ya what happened then.
I packed some clothes and I walked out, and I ain’t goin′ back again.

chorus
Oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife.
Say I won′t be coming home, gotta start a new life.
Oh, oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife.
Send a copy to my lawyer, gotta have a new life.

You’ve been many things, but most of all a good secretary to me.
And it′s times like this I feel you′ve always been close to me.
Was I wrong to work nights to try to build a good life?
All work and no play has just cost me a wife.

chorus
Oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife.
Say I won′t be coming home, gotta start a new life.
Oh, oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife.
Send a copy to my lawyer, gotta have a new life.
—
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?

chorus
Oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife.
Say I won′t be coming home, gotta start a new life.
Oh, oh, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife.
Send a copy to my lawyer, gotta have a new life.

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