Have I The Right comes courtesy of 1964 one hit wonders The Honeycombs, chiefly known for being the first successful rock group with a female drummer (they have now mutated into two groups of the same name, both containing original members and neither as good) though really the song belongs just as much to legendarily troubled producer Joe Meek.
Meek is primarily known for producing the famous hit Telstar and for employing a variety of unorthodox (for the time) methods to gain new sounds. For my money, Have I the Right takes Telstar and proceeds to stomp on its neck- over and over again.
Which is appropriate really. The reason Have I The Right's rhythm pounds so righteously is because Meek had the whole band stamp on the wooden floor of the studio recorded by five separate microphones, topped off with a sixth one being directly smashed with a tambourine. The resultant booms are organic, brutal and joyous all at once, instantly elevating the track above its similar sounding contemporaries.
Hiya, they did have a UK number 12 in 1965 with That's The Way and two other UK top forty hits. Also in Japan, Sweden, Australia, and elsewhere they had several number hits.
ReplyDeleteThere is currently only one The Honeycombs with one original member. None of the other members are now active and haven't been for over ten years.
See www.thehoneycombs.info for more details.