These songs turned two different musical artists into one-hit wonders

"Take a Letter Maria," by R.B. Greaves (1969) and Anthony Armstrong Jones (1970)

R.B. Greaves' fabulous tale of a cheating wife and an available secretary made it to number 2 in 1969. Only the Fifth Dimension’s “Wedding Bell Blues” kept it from the top spot. Greaves sounds a lot like Sam Cooke, which may be because he was Cooke’s nephew.

He spent time in Guyana, England and a Seminole reservation while growing up, and eventually incorporated calypso and mariachi into his unique version of pop-soul. It all coalesced on “Take a Letter Maria,” backed by the awesome Muscle Shoals session players.

A year later, Anthony Armstrong Jones released a country pop version of the song which begins with a jangly guitar before succumbing to the soft-centered piano and chorus which was standard country pop of the day. Jones's voice is fine, with its ever-so-slight twang, and there’s really nothing wrong with his version.

There’s just none of the fire that Greaves brought to it. Still, it would crack the top ten on the country charts, the only time Jones managed that feat. He would stick around the country charts for a few years, mostly playing covers of hits records in the middle of the top 100.