Genre: soul
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title: R.B. Greaves
Company: ATCO
Catalog: SD 33-311
Year: 1969
Country/State: Georgetown, British Guyana
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: --
Available: 2
GEMM catalog ID: 5155
Price: $10.00
In case you were curious, the initials stood for Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III ...
Born on an American air base in Georgetown, British Guyana (now known as Surinam), Greaves spent his early years growing up in the States on a California ranch just outside of a Seminole Indian reservation. As a nineteen year old he relocated to England where he started performing as front man for the ska band Sonny Charles and His TNTs. The group enjoyed some successes throughout the UK and the Carribean. His American successes came in 1`969 when a song he'd written ('Take a Letter Maria') was covered by both Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder. Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun subsequently took an interest in Greaves, signing him to a recorded contract with the company's ATCO subsidiary.
With Ertegun producing, Greaves American debut featured a cover of his own track. Released as a single 'Take a Letter Maria' b/w 'Big Bad City' (ATCO catalog number 45-6714) promptly went top-10, leading to the release of a supporting album.
Recorded in Muscle Shoals with Ertegun again producing, 1970's "R.B. Greaves" offered up a surprisingly impressive mixture of covers and Greaves original material. As showcased on the album, musically Greaves was an interesting hybrid. Like his uncle the late Sam Cooke (the album includes two Cooke covers), Greaves was gifted with an attractive and versatile voice that was capable of handling grittier soul ('This Is Soul'), as well as more conventional pop material (one of the better covers of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's 'Always Someone There To Remind Me'). In an era where radio play lists freely mixed diverse genres, that was a major benefit and probably actually helped break Greaves commercially. Greaves also showed himself to be a promising writer with a knack for subtle social and political commentary. Those characteristics were best heard on original material like 'Birmingham, Alabama', 'Ballad of Leroy' and the anti-war tract 'Home to Stay'. An enjoyable and widely overlooked debut that is well worth picking up since it's still readily available and reasonably priced.
ATCO also tapped the album for a series of follow-on charting singles:
- 'Always Someone There To Remind Me' b/w 'Oh When I Was a Boy' (ATCO catalog number 45-6726)
- 'Ballad of Leroy' b/w 'Fire and Rain' (ATCO catalog number 45-6745)
"R.B.
Greaves" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Always Something There To Remind Me (Burt Bacharach - Hald David) - 3:09
2.) Don't Play That Sound (You Lied) (Ahmet Ertegun - Betty Nelson) - 4:58
3.) Take a Letter Maria (R.B. Greaves) - 2:42
4.) Cupid (Sam Cooke) - 2:59
5.) This Is Soul (R.B. Greaves) - 2:30
(side
2)
1.) Ballad of Leroy (R.B. Greaves) - 4:07
2.) Ain't That Good News (Sam Cooke) - 3:29
3.) Birmingham, Alabama (Murray MacLeod - Stuart Margolin) - 2:26
4.) Home to Stay (R.B. Greaves) - 2:37
5.) Oh When I was a Boy (R.B. Greaves) - 2:31
Before parting ways with Atlantic/ATCO Greaves released a series of non-LP singles for the label:
- 1970' 'Whiter Shade of Pale' b/w 'Show Me the Way To Go' (ATCO catalog number 45-6789)
- 1970's 'Georgia Took Her Back b/w 'Oh When I was a Boy' (ATCO catalog number 45-6778 )
- 1971's 'Paperback Writer' b/w 'Over You Now' (ATCO catalog number 45-6839)
