Treat Her Right
TREAT HER RIGHT – 1965 Back Beat
Just a Little Bit – Sceptre 1965 (orig. Rosco Gordon 1960)
Roy Head was the White Soul Shouter from Three Rivers Texas. In early appearances he was a fairly clean cut all American boy. Later they roughed him up a little and stuck a cigarette in his mouth for the album cover. The early clips show that he was no mean dancer and the track Treat Her Right was deservedly popular for many years and still gets people moving today.
At the Twisted Wheel and in general on the UK soul scene in the 1960’s there existed a kind of reverse discrimination against white artists doing soul recordings. However, mostly this applied to those doing copies of black originals. Artists like Mitch Rider and Roy Head were making originals of their own and because soul fans at the time had no way of knowing they assumed they were black.
Because they became so popular it ceased to matter when the truth finally came out. Love Is After Me and Mohair Sam by Charlie Rich, and Going To A Happening by Tommy Neall are other great examples of what later became known as ‘Blue Eyed Soul’.
Roy Head’s Treat Her Right was a great dance number played at all the Soul outlets in Manchester in 1965/66. When you examine the lyrics it is like a guy’s manual as to how have his wicked way with his girlfriend – very useful advice for many of the adolescent boys who listened to them in the early days of the sixties without much clue about such things…Mind you, taking the ciggy out of Roy Head’s mouth would probably been a much better bit of advice!
Otis Redding did a great slow version too.
Song Lyrics – Treat Her Right – Roy Head
I wanna’ tell you a story
Every man oughta know
If you want a little lovin’
You gotta’ start real slow
She’s gonna’ love you tonight now
If you just treat her right now
Squeeze her real gentle
Gotta’ make her feel good
Tell her that you love her
Like you know you should
So if you don’t treat her right
She won’t love you tonight
If you practice my method
Just as hard as you can
You’re gonna’ get a reputation
As a lovin’ man
And you’ll be glad every night
That you treated her right