George Johnson, of the Brothers Johnson, was dating one of Otis's cousins when he came across the 1971 album Freedom Flight. The group recorded "Strawberry Letter 23" for their 1977 album Right on Time, which was produced by Quincy Jones, and the album went platinum. Their rendition hit the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number five and reached number one on the SoulSingles chart in 1977. Studio guitar player Lee Ritenour recreated Otis' original guitar solo for the Brothers Johnson cover. The 12" single was pressed on red strawberry-scented vinyl. The 7" single was originally released in a strawberry-scented sleeve. The song's chorus says "Strawberry Letter 22" instead of the actual title of the song. This is because the premise of the song is that a couple is exchanging love letters in musical form. The singer is creating "Strawberry Letter 23" as a reply to the song he has received from his lover, and he refers to her previous message as "Strawberry Letter 22" when replying.
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Legacy
chose the Brothers Johnson version as the 134th best song of the 1970s.
Soundtrack appearances
The song is heard very briefly in the Quentin Tarantino1994 filmPulp Fiction as Jules and Vincent walk down the hallway of an apartment building.
The song is played at length in the Quentin Tarantino 1997 film Jackie Brown and is featured on the album.
The song can also be heard in the TV series Six Feet Under, Season 5, Episode 9 "Ecotone".
The song is featured in Nip/TuckSeason 3, Episode #2 "Kiki".
The Shuggie Otis version can be heard on the 2005 film Munich.
Sampling
The track, specifically its main melody, has been used many times in music sampling.
Negativland also sampled it in "White Rabbit and a Dog Named Gidget" from their 1989 album Helter Stupid.
The melody is sampled in the opening of the track "Loving You" by Paul Hardcastle's group First Light 's 1989 album You Had It All.
Silk's "Baby It's You", from their 1992 debut album Lose Control, sampled the song's backing track.
DJ Quik uses a sample from the Brothers Johnson version in his song "Safe + Sound" off the same title track album Safe + Sound in 1995.
The St. Lunatics also sampled this song heavily on their first independently released 1996 single "Gimme What U Got".
Das EFX sampled the song in their song "Whut Goes Around" on their 1998 album Generation EFX.
The song is sampled in Messy Marv's & Mitchy Slick's track On the One featuring Yukmouth off their 2007 album Messy Slick.
The song is mentioned in the lyrics of "St. Exquisite's Confessions" by Of Montreal on their 2008 album Skeletal Lamping.
The song is mentioned in the lyrics of "Too Many Rappers", by Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and is included also on their 2011 album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two.
In Girl Talk's song "Oh No" for the 2010 album All Day.
The guitar solo is sampled in Justice's track called "Canon" on their 2011 album Audio, Video, Disco.
It was sampled in 2012 by singer Xavier Naidoo and rapper Kool Savas for the track "X.A.V.A.S".
Interpolations
Parts of the song, especially the distinctive, rhythmic melody of the song's verse, have also been imitated or interpolated in other songs:
"Strawberry Letter 23" is the fifth single from R&B singer Tevin Campbell's 1992 debut studio albumT.E.V.I.N.. It peaked at #53 on the Hot 100 and #40 on the R&B charts. The Tevin Campbell version is more up-tempo, with a new jack swing beat, and includes a rap that mentions "the letter 23."
An instrumental version was done by Phil Upchurch on his 1978 album Phil Upchurch around the same time as the Brothers Johnson version, which is a more upbeat funky version.
The Scottish band Pop Wallpaper released Strawberry Letter 23, "remodelled /.../ for the dance floor", as a single in 1986, with Audrey Redpath on vocals.
The short-lived R&B duo Kiara included a cover version of the song on its 1988 album To Change and/or Make a Difference, which peaked at #23 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart.
Malaysian singer Yuna recorded the song for a commercial for Swedish fashion retailer H&M starring Ukrainian-Canadian model Daria Werbowy that aired in March 2015.
In June 2015, Faith No More covered a large portion of the song during an interlude during "Midlife Crisis" at the Pinkpop festival and also at Download Festival.
On July 22, 2017, Phish covered the song during its "Baker's Dozen" run of shows at Madison Square Garden, during the "Strawberry" themed night of that run. The song made its second appearance during the band's Fall 2018 Tour run at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia, and it was performed again during Phish's Summer 2019 Tour at the BB&T Pavilion in New Jersey, as well as December 6, 2019 in Charleston, SC.
