Roy Head first achieved fame as the frontman of Roy Head and The Traits, a musical group formed in San Marcos, Texas. While still in high school, the band secured its first recording contract in 1958 with TNT Music in San Antonio. From the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, they performed and recorded in rockabilly, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues, steadily building a regional reputation.

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The Traits scored several regional hits between 1959 and 1963, but Head is best known for the 1965 international smash “Treat Her Right.” Recorded at Gold Star Studios (later Sugar Hill Recording Studios) in Houston and issued on Don Robey’s Back Beat label, the single exploded onto the charts. It reached No. 2 on both the U.S. Pop and R&B charts—held from the top spot only by The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” With its blazing horns and punchy rhythm section (credited to Head and bassist Gene Kurtz), “Treat Her Right” became a defining example of blue-eyed soul. Its success was especially remarkable during the height of the British Invasion, when few American acts broke through.

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By 1995, “Treat Her Right” had been covered by at least 20 major artists, including Jimmy Page, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sawyer Brown, Bon Jovi, and even Mae West and Barbara Mandrell—who recorded it as “Treat Him Right.” Bob Dylan, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tom Jones also performed it live. After launching a solo career, Head earned a string of country hits between 1975 and 1985. Roy Head and The Traits reunited in 2001 and 2007, and were inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2007. Today, “Treat Her Right” is estimated to have sold more than four million copies worldwide.