Politically incorrect to the nth degree. From 1965, before we knew any better. - John Peel after playing Treat Her Right on 30/1/93.
This is the second post in a row on this blog where a piece of music played on a John Peel show, 30 years ago, ends up having resonance in 2023.
At various points, over the last year or so, on social media, I’ve seen people post a meme of Tom Jones, circa 1969, wigging out to a piece of brass music and driving his audience crazy. The clip’s usually accompanied by someone posting something like, “Out of office on; let my holiday begin!” I never knew what the music was that Jones was rocking out to, until my blog notes led me back to Treat Her Right, a 1965 hit for Roy Head and the Traits.
Based on this record, Head was a difficult man to pin down musically. Born in Texas, and a future inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Treat Her Right was his signature song and is a million miles away from rockabilly. Simply put, it’s 2 minutes of sex talk soul which fused the phrasing of Elvis Presley with the energy of James Brown, though it has to be said that the iconic closing brass figure has me wondering whether Head and his co-writer, Tony Montalbano hadn’t been caning a copy of You Really Got Me by The Kinks given its resemblance to the central riff of that song. It may have been a canny attempt on Head’s part to try and woo lovers of rock ‘n’ roll, soul music and devotees of The British Invasion. If so, it paid off big time as the song peaked at Number 2 on the US Billboard Single Chart, though it only reached Number 30 on the UK Singles Chart. It was kept off the top spot on the US chart by Yesterday by The Beatles. Both songs went on to be widely covered, including by Tom Jones on his This is Tom Jones TV show….where 50 odd years later, it would celebrate weekends and holidays the world over.
I’ve never kissed two sisters. Hmmm…I bet that probably wasn’t true back in the day, was it, Tom?
Videos courtesy of Roy Head and the Traits - Topic and Tom Jones.
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