Have Love, Will Travel

"Have Love, Will Travel"
Single by Richard Berry
B-side	"No Room"
Released	November 1959
Format	Vinyl single
Genre	Rock and roll R&B pop[1]
Length	2:35
Label	Flip 349
Writer(s)	Richard Berry
Richard Berry singles chronology
"Besame Mucho" "Have Love, Will Travel" "I'll Never Ever Love Again"

"Have Love, Will Travel" is a 1959 song written and recorded by Richard Berry.^[2] Berry also wrote and originally performed the classic hit "Louie Louie". The title is a based on a popular television/radio western serial Have Gun, Will Travel.

The Sonics version

In its best known incarnation, garage rock-protopunkers The Sonics covered the song on their 1965 album Here Are The Sonics. Driven by haphazardly recorded fuzz guitar, a big driving drum sound, screaming vocals and a dirty saxophone break, it epitomized their sound at that time. The Sonics changed the chord progression from the original G-Am-Bb-Am, a 1-2m-m3-2m progression, to a basic 1-4-5-4 progression, which in G would be simply G-C-D-C. This is the version that virtually all other artists copied.

Other versions

• The song was released by Paul Revere and the Raiders as a 1964 B-side.
• Other notable 60s cover versions include the Gallahads (1964), Hollywood Hurricanes (UK, 1964), Imperialites (1964), Lee Maye (1964), Off-Beats (1964), and Sano and the Saints Five (1966).
• Stiv Bators as a 1986 B-side.
• Crazyhead on a 1989 EP.
• Thee Headcoatees on their 1992 album Have Love Will Travel.
• Blood Sausage on their 1993 release Happy Little Bullshit Boy.
• The Brandos on their 1998 release "Nowhere Zone" (although it was originally recorded for their ill-fated Trial By Fire album in 1989).
• Blues rockers The Black Keys on their 2003 album Thickfreakness, their 7" vinyl single, and their 2004 EP The Moan.
• Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts in 2005 (who named a tour with Dan Aykroyd "The Have Love Will Travel Revue").
• Japanese group Portugal Japan on their eponymous 2005 album.
• Danish retro rock band The Blue Van on their 2005 album The Art of Rolling.
• Lady Dottie and the Diamonds on their eponymous 2008 album.
• In 2011, Diesel recorded and released a version as the lead single from his EP 7 Axes.
• A version by Sky Saxon, lead singer of The Seeds, was released in 2011.
• The Portland band Guitarwhals released a version in 2015. ^[3]
• The Vinylos on their 2013 EP "No Trash"
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed it at times on their anti-heroic 1988 Tunnel of Love Express tour; the song appears on a 2015 release from the tour: LA Sports Arena, California, 1988.^[4]

Television and movies

• The Sonics version appears in the movies RocknRolla (2008), How To Be (2008) and Tournée (2010).
• Since 2007, a recording of the song has been used by LV=, the UK financial services group, in its television advertising for car insurance.
• The Basics from Melbourne, Australia covered the song on their 2007 album Stand Out/Fit In, and their 2010 live album, and this version was used in an episode of the David Duchovny series Californication.
• The song was used in the BBC series Three Men in More Than One Boat.
• September 2014 in a promo for season four of the CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
• October 2014 by ESPN for their tennis broadcast ads.
• A version by Hard Livings is on the soundtrack of the 2015 film Man Up.

References