Sweet Soul Music of the 1970’s- “Strawberry Letter 23″- The Brothers Johnson. I started to get into music when my friend Andy turned me on to The Beatles in the fall of 1976. It was August 13, 1977 when I first discovered American Top 40- and became a devoted listener for a few years. On that first AT40 a lot of those hits were new to me- including”Strawberry Letter 23” by The Brothers Johnson at #27- which I loved on first listen. For a brief period of time I bought singles and I got this one with the cover pictured above. The record was released in a strawberry scented sleeve- for a year or two the sleeve had that strawberry smell. I still have the single.

A couple things I never knew- I just learned. The song wasn’t a Brothers Johnson original. George Johnson at the time was dating the cousin of Shuggie Otis- who wrote and released the song in 1971 on his Freedom Flight album. Otis had written the song at age 17- he wrote it for his girlfriend.

From Songfacts- –It is commonly believed that she wrote to him on strawberry-scented paper but Otis told Spinner in a 2013 interview that the song has nothing to do with the smell of strawberries. “What I pictured when I was writing that song, was a girl handing a guy a pink envelope,” he explained. “A love letter. The guy and the girl had written each other 22 letters so far. And the 23rd one he writes is a song. But no scents.”

The Brothers Johnson cover- was produced by Quincy Jones. “Strawberry Letter 23” make it up the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart to #5 and their album Right On Time went platinum. The single went to #1 on the U.S. R&B Singles Chart. One of my favorite singles of that year.