Music Monday: “My Maria” – hit in 1973 by B.W. Stevenson
Posted By RichC on April 1, 2024
It seems shocking, or at least it surprised me, that Louis Charles B.W. (BuckWheat) Stevenson’s popular hit “My Maria” had not been mention as a Music Monday song?
I happened to hear it last month on SiriusXM’s 70’s on 7 and jotted it down to check the blog. I did find the Three Dog Night version of “Shambala” (Stevenson recorded it too) and then realized that the same songwriter, Daniel Moore, also co-wrote “My Maria” with Stevenson in that same year.
| BW Stevenson – “My Maria” | 1973 |
Lindy Blaskey, Moore’s music publisher at ABC/Dunhill Records heard Daniel’s one verse and chorus of “My Maria” but Moore thought it was too bubble-gum sounding. Lindy Blaskey gave the verse and chorus to B.W. Stevenson and asked him to write an additional verse. When finished, David Kershenbaum, Stevenson’s producer at RCA Records, agreed with Lindy Blaskey that the song sounded like a hit.
What is depressing is that B.W. Stevenson died at age 38 in 1988 after complications from a staph infection following heart-valve surgery, according to an entry on Wikipedia.
Brave “Leo” AI summary:
My Maria” is a song co-written by B.W. Stevenson and Daniel Moore.
Stevenson’s version of the song reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song was performed by Stevenson on the ABC-TV program ‘American Bandstand’ on August 25th, 1973. It entered Billboard’s Hot Top 100 chart at position #81 on July 22nd, 1973, and peaked at #9 for 1 week on September 23rd, 1973, and spent 16 weeks on the Top 100.3 The song was played non-stop on AM radio in the early 70’s.
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