"Have Love, Will Travel" is a 1959 song written and recorded by
Richard Berry.[1] While the song may have been recorded before the end of 1959, the correct release date appears to be January, 1960.[2][3] The title is based on a popular television/radio western serial Have Gun, Will Travel.
The Sonics version
In its best known incarnation,
garage rock/
proto-punk band
The Sonics included a "typically intense"[4] version of the song on their 1965 album, Here Are The Sonics. Driven by a riff doubled on guitar, sax and bass, a big driving drum sound, screaming vocals and a saxophone break, it epitomized their sound.[citation needed] The Sonics changed the key from G to C, modified the riff (performing it instrumentally, rather than vocally), and (while they used the original chord progression, a basic 1-4-5-4 progression, G-C-D-C in G, or C-F-G-F in C), the modified riff emphasizes cross-relations of minor/major intervals against the keyboard. The guitar in the Sonics version does not use fuzz-tone, although it seems that some have mistaken the sax for a fuzz-tone guitar.[citation needed] This is the version that virtually all other performers copied after the '60s.[citation needed]
Other contemporary 1960s versions include Woody Carr (1964),
the Gallahads (1964), the Hollywood Hurricanes (UK, 1964), the Imperialites (1964),
Lee Maye (1964), the Off-Beats (1964), and Sano and the Saints Five (1966).
The song was used in the BBC series Three Men in More Than One Boat.
The Sonics' version was featured in September 2014 in a promo for season four of the
CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, and also in October 2014 by ESPN for their tennis broadcast ads. In 2022 it was used in a
Bulleit Bourbon television ad.