Have Love, Will Travel Explained

Have Love, Will Travel
Cover:Richard_Berry_Flip_349_Label_Scan.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Richard Berry
B-Side:No Room
Released:January 1960
Genre:Rhythm and blues
Length:2:35
Label:Flip 349
Prev Title:Louie Louie
Prev Year:1956
Next Title:Sweet Sugar You
Next Year:1957

"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. 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. This is the version that virtually all other performers copied after the '60s.

Other versions

A different song by the same title, written by Lee Hazlewood, was released by The Sharps in 1958.

Television and movies

Notes and References

  1. Web site: WangDangDula.com. Wdd.mbnet.fi. 8 June 2021. 9 October 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181009215513/http://wdd.mbnet.fi/richardberry.htm. dead.
  2. Web site: Richard Berry and the Pharaohs - Have Love Will Travel .
  3. Web site: Richard Berry and the Pharaohs - Have Love Will Travel / No Room . . 1960 .
  4. Alec. Palao. Alec Palao. Love That Louie. 2002. CD sleeve notes. Ace Records. London.
  5. Web site: A Brilliant Disguise: Springsteen Live Archive Series Spotlights Los Angeles, 1988. Fairman. Bruce. July 9, 2015. The Second Disc. July 12, 2015.