Saturday 9 January 2021

Roy Head born 9 January 1941

Roy Head (January 9, 1941 – September 21, 2020) was an American singer, best known for his hit record "Treat Her Right". 

Roy Head was born in Three Rivers, Texas, on January 9, 1941. In 1955, Head and his family left Three Rivers for San Marcos, and there he met a guitar player named Tommy Bolton, who attended the same high school. Head and Bolton formed a band, the Traits, who became one of the most popular acts on the early rock & roll scene in Texas. They scored several regional hits (including "One More Time," "Summertime Love," and "Live It Up") after signing with TNT Records (aka Tanner 'N' Texas) in 1959.

Though they were still enrolled in high school, the Traits gigged frequently at sock hops, teen clubs, and university gigs around the state, though their age and class schedules prevented them from accepting a proposed booking on American Bandstand. In 1962, the Traits jumped to another Texas label, Renner Records, and several of their tunes were licensed for release on larger labels, including Scepter and Ascot. 

In 1965, Head and the Traits signed a deal with producer and manager Huey P. Meaux, nicknamed "the Crazy Cajun," who struck a deal for the group with Back Beat Records, run by veteran record man Don Robey. Head's first single for Back Beat was "Treat Her Right," which exploded onto radio and went to number two on the pop singles charts. A song cut during Head's association with Scepter, "Just a Little Bit," was reissued after "Treat Her Right" hit and grazed the Top 40, topping out at 39, while his second 45 for Back Beat, "Apple of My Eye," peaked at 32. However, legal problems soon sidelined Head as he got into a contractual dispute with members of the Traits as well as various managers. 


                             

One of his former band mates, Gene Kurtz, once told a reporter, "He'd pretty much sign any piece of paper put in front of him." As Scepter continued to push older Roy Head tracks into the market while he was dealing with his legal troubles and cutting fresh material for Back Beat, Head's career quickly lost momentum, and while he released several singles in 1966, none charted higher than 88 ("Get Back"). A year after "Treat Her Right," Head's days as a rock hit maker were over. 

In 1968, Head, now working without the Traits, left Back Beat to sign with Mercury Records for a handful of singles, and moved to ABC/Dunhill for the 1970 album Same People (That You Meet Going Up, You Meet Going Down). The record didn't click in the marketplace, and he next turned up on Steve Cropper's TMI label, which brought out 1972's Dismal Prisoner. By 1976, Head had shifted his focus from R&B-infused rock to country with a soulful undertow, and he released an album for ABC/Dot, Head First, that included the single "The Most Wanted Woman in Town." The song hit the country charts in both the United States (number 19) and Canada (number 7), and Head was once again a star. 

By the end of 1976, he'd issued another album for ABC/Dot, A Head of His Time, and his third LP for the label, 1978's Tonight's the Night, featured three more country hits: "Come to Me," "Now You See 'Em, Now You Don't," and a cover of Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night (It's Gonna Be Alright)." After the success of his releases for ABC/Dot, Head had no trouble finding a new record deal, with Elektra bringing out 1979's In Our Room and 1980's The Many Sides of Roy Head. However, the Elektra releases scored no major hits, and he left the label after a dispute with producer Jimmy Bowen, who had been behind the controls for most of his successful country sessions. 

It would be 1985 before Roy Head released another album, Living for a Song, issued by the independent Texas Crude label; it included guest appearances from iconic guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lonnie Mack and fiddler Johnny Gimble. Head stuck to live work for the next decade-and-a-half, before 2011 saw the release of Still Treating 'Em Right, a lively set that included remakes of a few previous country hits, and 2012's Roy Head was a direct-to-lacquer LP of a live-in-the-studio session. 

Meanwhile, his son Sundance Head was developing a fan following of his own, serving as a contestant on American Idol in 2007 and winning the grand prize on The Voice in 2016.A few weeks later Roy suffered a stroke and went under surgery for a ruptured aorta in the same year. In 2019, Roy Head's greatest hit gained a new audience when Quentin Tarantino used it to accompany the title sequence in his film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. 

Head died following a heart attack on September 21, 2020, in his home in Porter, Texas at the age of 79.

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

10 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Roy Head & The Traits - Rock 'N Roll Classics” go here:

https://www.upload.ee/files/12741672/Roy_Head___The_Traits-Classics.rar.html

01 - Treat Her Right
02 - Apple Of My Eye
03 - Live It Up
04 - Don't Be Blue (alt. take)
05 - Your Turn To Cry
06 - Don't Be Blue
07 - Don't Cry No More
08 - Yes I Do
09 - Got My Mojo Workin'
10 - Night Time Blues
11 - Woe Woe
12 - Walking All Day
13 - One Night
14 - Here I Am In Love Again
15 - My Baby's Fine
16 - So Long, My Love
17 - Just Because
18 - One More Time
19 - Yes I Do (alt. take)
20 - Here I Am In Love Again (alt. take)
21 - My Babe
22 - Live It Up (alt. take)
23 - Summertime Love
24 - One More Time (alt. take)
25 - Your Turn To Cry (alt. take)
26 - Night Time Blues (alt. take)
27 - Summertime Love (alt. take)
28 - Walking All Day (alt. take)
29 - I'll Be Around
30 - My Baby's Fine (alt. take)

A Master Classics Records mp3 album from 2011
Courtesy of Ozzieguy @ Music That We Adore blog.





Aussie said...

thank you love this cd of Roy Head. nice tks from Aussie

Tel said...

Thanx Look Forward To Listening To Some Of The Alts
Cheers
Tel

Rev. bIGhIG said...

Do you have the Living for a Song album?
Never heard of this one.

boppinbob said...

Sorry Rev, I'm after it myself. Sounds good.

Rev. bIGhIG said...

Bob,
There's a live cut on YouTube for "Break Out the Good Stuff" from the album. Straight ahead C/W, and a good one. Seems like the only release on Texas Crude (great name). And a few YouTube numbers from his son, Sundance - a helluva singer.

Hitparade said...

Bob,
There are two great songs "One Night" and "Just Because" in this collection from Roy Head's 1976 Dot ABC Country charting album "A Head Of His Time". Other great songs in that album are: "Georgia On My Mind" "Blue Moon Of Kentucky", "When My Blue Moon turns To Gold Again" and "You'll Never Walk Alone".

Could you please take the time to re-create this album to help preserve Roy Head's legacy, thanks :-)

Rev. bIGhIG said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sruCy_Yyq9Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFp6BhK_1Dc

Here's two cuts from that album neither of us can find.
I posted one of 'em live, but now I got us the album cut.
The other is the Stevie Ray thing. A good one.
Enjoy, and stay on the case!

Hitparade said...

Bob,
I don't understand the reason for the new link of the album you already posted.

boppinbob said...

Hello HP, Just tired eyes and brain. I thought "Could you please take the time to re-create this album" meant a re-post. Do You mean that you are after the Lp "A Head of his time" ?
If so........i'm afraid I cannot find it anywhere.
Regards, Bob