"Treat Her Right" is a
soul music song, with a standard 12-bar-blues structure. Written by
Roy Head and Gene Kurtz,[1] it was recorded by Head and The Traits and released on the
Back Beatlabel in 1965.
Background
Members of the Traits on this record included Johnny Clark on lead guitar, Frank Miller on rhythm guitar, Gene Kurtz on bass, Dan Buie on keyboards, Danny Gomez and Tommy May on tenor sax, Johnny Gibson on trumpet, and Jerry Gibson on drums.
In the ending instrumental choruses, Roy Head's voice is heard repeatedly shouting "HEY", and saying ad-libs including "You're too much, baby".
Roy Head and the Traits "
Just a Little Bit" and the bluesy-rockabilly hybrid, "Apple Of My Eye" also cracked the Top 40 in 1965. However, those were only minor hits in the wake of "Treat Her Right", which is estimated to have sold over four million copies worldwide, and was a featured song, along with
Wilson Pickett's "
Mustang Sally" and
Steve Cropper's "
In the Midnight Hour", in the successful 1991 motion picture, The Commitments.[8]
It was independently recorded in 1971 by country singers,
Billy "Crash" Craddock and
Barbara Mandrell. Mandrell's version, "Treat Him Right," flipped the genders to have the song come from a woman's perspective.
Guitarist
Arlen Roth included it on his 1979 album Hot Pickups, while Vintage Guitar magazine listed it in their "Top 10 Guitar Sounds ever recorded".[citation needed]
The Leroi Brothers, for their 1984 EP Forget About The Danger Think Of The Fun.
Australian beat pop quartet
Shindiggers, for their 1985 EP Beat Is Back and a different version for their 1998 LP Surf Sex Shindiggers.[12]
In 1988,
George Thorogood recorded the track on the
albumBorn to Be Bad and released it as a single, and as a music video in which Roy Head had an acting cameo and danced in the final chorus. [13]