Because I Love You (The Postman Song)Artist: Stevie B
Writer: Warren Allen Brooks
Album: Love And Emotion
Year: 1990
Chart Position: #1(US) #6(UK)
Label: LMR
By 1990, freestyle music dressed up as dance-pop and delivered hits for the likes of Milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul. Stevie B also adapted, releasing a song called "Love And Emotion" that went to #15 that September, his biggest hit to that point. Unlike his previous songs, he didn't write it. That song was written by Warren Allen Brooks, who five years earlier was in a duo with Stevie called Friday Friday; they released a single called "Boy Toy."
"'Love And Emotion' is a song I put together after Steve got his contract with LMR Records," Brooks says. "I wrote it and played all the instruments on it. Steve sang the lead vocals."
The song was inspired by a girl he was dating from Sweden who promised to stick around but didn't.
Brooks with Babyface after receiving their BMI AwardsBut there was another song Brooks wrote that Stevie was even more interested in: A piano ballad called "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)," which had been kicking around since their days together in Friday Friday. Stevie produced the track and delivered the heartfelt vocal; Brooks played all the instruments, making his Korg sound like a Steinway.
The song earned airplay on pop radio but also in the clubs as a slow jam and on all those at-work-listening stations that played too much Celine Dion. In December, it went to #1.
People think this song is about a man trying desperately to hold on to his girl. But it's not."The Postman Song" is a song I wrote in the '80s. I wrote it for myself, really, and then I decided to give it to Stevie B in 1989. I started writing it in '83. I wrote the first verse. I didn't finish it until '89. In '89, the chorus came to me. I put it together with the first verse.
It's a spiritual song. It's about me and God having a conversation, and God telling me that he got my letter and he'd be with me any time I needed him.
I was living in Miami at the time and I was trying to get my career off the ground as an artist. Things were going kind of slow at the time. I was a little depressed, and out of my depression came a hit song.
Stevie B - Steve Hill is his real name - we were a group in 1985 (Friday Friday). I played the song for him - what I had of it - on the piano, and he said, "That sounds like a hit. That could be a hit." We split up and he started his own career, but then we got back together and one of the first things he wanted to record was "The Postman Song."
I played everything on the song. Stevie did the lead vocal. I wrote the entire song by myself. I used a (Ensoniq) VFX synthesizer, and an M1 (Korg M1 synth). It doesn't sound electronic because that's the way I played it. That's me. I'm gifted.
Brooks with Brooke ShieldsWhat happens to me when it becomes a hit is, I continue to write, and I'm still writing to this day. I own my own record label with my partner, Anthony Lee Friesen. We own our own independent label, our own publishing. We own everything.
I wasn't surprised when it became a hit. I'm the type of writer that writes that kind of stuff. I wasn't surprised at all.
How did my life change? I had more money.
Shock G
Shock G, also known as Humpty Hump, was in Warren's band - The Warren Brooks Band - before forming Digital Underground, where Tupac got his start (Pac used to carry crates for Humpty Hump, according to Wyclef John in Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie").
Says Brooks: "He was my friend. He was in my band in 1985 - he played keyboards in my band. I would let him come up to the front of the stage and do a little rap during a certain segment of my show. That was before he and Tupac got together. We were friends - he respected me a lot because of what I was doing, writing good songs."
A good song has to be something that people can relate to, and it has to be "in the pocket." How I write it varies. Sometimes I start with a title, sometimes I start with the music. Sometimes I start with just a beat. It just comes to me. Each song means something different, but I love them all. Shock G, also known as Humpty Hump, was in Warren's band - The Warren Brooks Band - before forming Digital Underground, where Tupac got his start (Pac used to carry crates for Humpty Hump, according to Wyclef John in Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie").
Says Brooks: "He was my friend. He was in my band in 1985 - he played keyboards in my band. I would let him come up to the front of the stage and do a little rap during a certain segment of my show. That was before he and Tupac got together. We were friends - he respected me a lot because of what I was doing, writing good songs."
The R&B today sucks. The R&B back in the '80s and '90s was more creative with more range. The production was better.
I'm just beginning. I started my record company with Anthony Lee Friesen back in '91, and we've been going strong ever since. Some songs sell a lot, some songs sell a little, but we're still in this game, and we're in this game to stay.
November 1, 2023
Find Warren at the website for his label, Wab Nation Records
Further Reading:
Exposé creator/producer Lewis Martineé
Alisha songwriter Alex Forbes
Photos by Anthony Lee Friesen, from Brooks' collection
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