“Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves
E433138
“Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves is a 1969 soul-pop hit single about a man dictating a letter to his secretary after discovering his wife’s infidelity.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4355317 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves Context triple: [Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, notableRecording, “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves]
-
A.
Mary’s Song
"Mary’s Song" is a contemplative poem by Sylvia Plath that juxtaposes the serenity of a winter landscape with themes of sacrifice and suffering.
-
B.
Sister’s Coming Home
"Sister’s Coming Home" is a song featured on Emmylou Harris’s acclaimed country album "Phases and Stages."
-
C.
The Lonedale Operator
The Lonedale Operator is a 1911 silent short film directed by D. W. Griffith, noted for its innovative cross-cutting and suspenseful storytelling in early cinema.
-
D.
The Ballad of Sally Rose
The Ballad of Sally Rose is a 1985 concept album by Emmylou Harris that tells a semi-autobiographical, narrative-driven country story inspired in part by her relationship with Gram Parsons.
-
E.
Holy Willie's Prayer
"Holy Willie's Prayer" is a satirical Scots-language poem by Robert Burns that mocks religious hypocrisy and self-righteous Calvinism through the dramatic monologue of a sanctimonious church elder.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves Target entity description: “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves is a 1969 soul-pop hit single about a man dictating a letter to his secretary after discovering his wife’s infidelity.
-
A.
Mary’s Song
"Mary’s Song" is a contemplative poem by Sylvia Plath that juxtaposes the serenity of a winter landscape with themes of sacrifice and suffering.
-
B.
Sister’s Coming Home
"Sister’s Coming Home" is a song featured on Emmylou Harris’s acclaimed country album "Phases and Stages."
-
C.
The Lonedale Operator
The Lonedale Operator is a 1911 silent short film directed by D. W. Griffith, noted for its innovative cross-cutting and suspenseful storytelling in early cinema.
-
D.
The Ballad of Sally Rose
The Ballad of Sally Rose is a 1985 concept album by Emmylou Harris that tells a semi-autobiographical, narrative-driven country story inspired in part by her relationship with Gram Parsons.
-
E.
Holy Willie's Prayer
"Holy Willie's Prayer" is a satirical Scots-language poem by Robert Burns that mocks religious hypocrisy and self-righteous Calvinism through the dramatic monologue of a sanctimonious church elder.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
single
ⓘ
song ⓘ |
| addressee | secretary named Maria ⓘ |
| artist | R. B. Greaves ⓘ |
| chartPerformance | reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 ⓘ |
| composer | R. B. Greaves ⓘ |
| containsCharacter |
Maria
ⓘ
narrator husband ⓘ unfaithful wife ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| decade | 1960s ⓘ |
| format | 7-inch single ⓘ |
| genre |
pop
ⓘ
soul ⓘ soul pop ⓘ |
| hasBside | "Big Bad City" ⓘ |
| hasMusicalStyle | Latin-tinged soul ⓘ |
| hasNotableLyric |
"Take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife"
ⓘ
"This is the end of the line" ⓘ |
| includedOn | album "R. B. Greaves" ⓘ |
| influencedByContext | late-1960s pop-soul sound ⓘ |
| instrumentation |
horn section
ⓘ
rhythm section ⓘ |
| isDebutSingleOf | R. B. Greaves ⓘ |
| labelImprint |
Atco
ⓘ
linked to:
Atco Records
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | 2:44 ⓘ |
| lyricalDevice | dictated letter ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first person ⓘ |
| peakChartPosition |
2 on the Billboard Hot 100
ⓘ
2 on the Canadian RPM chart ⓘ 3 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart ⓘ |
| performer | R. B. Greaves ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A man dictates a letter to his secretary ending his marriage after discovering his wife with another man. ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | husband ⓘ |
| recordedIn | 1969 ⓘ |
| recordLabel | Atco Records ⓘ |
| releaseDate | 1969-09 ⓘ |
| releaseYear | 1969 ⓘ |
| salesCertification | RIAA gold record ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | dictating a letter of separation ⓘ |
| theme |
marital infidelity
ⓘ
separation ⓘ starting a new life ⓘ |
| vocalStyle | male lead vocal ⓘ |
| writer | R. B. Greaves ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves Description of subject: “Take a Letter Maria” by R. B. Greaves is a 1969 soul-pop hit single about a man dictating a letter to his secretary after discovering his wife’s infidelity.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.