Roy Head has a serious warning for those planning on attending his Memphis show this weekend.

"I'm gonna blow your saddle off," howls Head, in a syrupy Texas accent. "Y'all better make sure the cinch is tight. And if you get on the horse, put your feet in the stirrups, 'cause I'm coming out and beating him on the side with a tennis shoe!"

When it comes to the old-school art of hype and grease, Roy Head is a true master. But even at the age of 66, Head remains the type of knock-'em-dead showman who can back his big talk.

Best known for his epochal pop-soul hit "Treat Her Right," Head's enjoyed something of a resurgence in the past couple of years. In 2006, his son Jason "Sundance" Head became a popular contestant on "American Idol." As part of the show, they screened an old black-and-white clip of Head's riotous performance of "Treat Her Right" from a 1965 episode of "Shindig!" Suddenly, his phone was ringing again. Here’s a clip of him back in ’65

"I've been very fortunate," adds Head. "The world's found the remaining bones of an old rock and roller."

Head will be bringing those bones to the stage of the Hi-Tone Café Saturday night for a performance as part of the Memphis Pops Fest; he'll also hold a pair of meet-and-greets.

Born in Three Rivers, Texas, Head lived all over the state as a youth. "My father was a migrant worker, and we went wherever work was," he says. A hipster from the start, he hung out with music-loving black and Hispanic residents of communities that were brought together by their shared poverty, rather than divided by race. "Like I say, my father was a sharecropper, so anybody that had over a bean sandwich was wealthy to us," says Head.

During high school, in San Marcos in the late '50s, Head formed his first band, The Traits. "We'd be going to football games and I'd be singing on the bus. There was a guy on the team who said, 'You sing pretty good' and he went and told his mother. She owned the funeral home in town, so she started sponsoring our little band," says Head. "Bought us our first sequined shirts (with) 'The Traits' on the back."

For the better part of a decade Head and The Traits were stalwarts of a rich Texas rock circuit that also featured bands led by future greats like Doug Sahm, B.J. Thomas and Sunny Ozuna. "We played every dance hall there was from Schulenburg to Madisonville -- hell, you ain't got time to write 'em all down, and I can't tell you where they all were anyway," says Head. "But if there was a hall, we played it."

Head's acrobatic stage show was influenced by the dazzling microphone work of Joe Tex, and the dips and flips of James Brown and Jackie Wilson. And, "I learned a lot of the dance moves from my mother," says Head. "She was a real dancer. She'd dance with anything; she'd dance with an icebox."

After years of performing and a few small regional record hits, Head and The Traits stumbled onto a monster smash in 1965, with an original tune called "Treat Her Right." The genesis of the song is a strange one. Head says the tune was originally a hybrid of Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time" and Jesse Hill's "Ooh Poo Pah Doo."

"Well, I just started making up lyrics. I was singing, 'One little milk, one little cream, gotta get a cow that's got mar-ga-rine/She got the best milk you've ever seen/Gotta squeeze her little udders.' The song was originally about a cow -- honest to God. Of course, I lived 50 miles from nowhere, so I knew all about cows. Now, wait a minute," laughs Head, "I wasn't in love with no heifer, though!"

Later, Traits bassist Gene Kurtz urged Head to change the song's lyrics. "He said 'Why don't we make this about a woman instead of about a cow.' I thought, well, there's nothing wrong with that. I will have to tell Bessie about this though," jokes Head. "It took us only about 30 minutes to (re-write) it."

They cut the record in a single take at Houston's Gold Star studios with the Crazy Cajun, producer Huey Meaux, behind the board.

"One night we were on our way to do a show, and this disc jockey out of Nashville comes on the air and says, 'Ladies and Gentlemen I want to play you the next No. 1 rhythm and blues song in the country.' And we hear the opening to our song. Man, we almost wrecked the Cadillac we were driving -- we had a '53 Cadillac with a stolen U-Haul trailer," says Head. "And we all got out, and if you've ever seen a bunch of rednecks tear down a fence ... and it was barbed wire! I tell you there's never been a high like that moment."

The song reached No. 2 on the charts, where it stayed for eight weeks, but was denied the No. 1 slot by a pair of Beatles songs. "Don't say it! Don't say it!" cackles Head. "I've never bought one of their songs; I've never bought one of their albums. I hate the Beatles!"

Of course, "Treat Her Right" has had a life of its own. It's been covered countless times, by everyone from Otis Redding to Mae West, and still turns up prominently in films and television shows.

The Traits eventually broke up and Head continued on solo, recording a series of classic cult albums, like 1970's innovative, horn-heavy Same People (That You Meet Going Up, You Meet Coming Down). Next came Head's 1972 swamp-pop masterpiece Dismal Prisoner, recorded in Memphis and produced by Stax vet Steve Cropper at his Midtown TMI studio.

Head was a frequent visitor to Memphis -- it's where he met his wife, Carolyn -- often performing at local nightspots like Thunderbird.

"Memphis was always first and foremost in my mind. Cause that's where all the bad boys come from," he says. "I have been fortunate in my life to work with Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Bland. The only one I never worked with was Elvis. And the only reason I never took any of those (gigs) is I knew there was no reason to get up there with him. You don't get on stage with a pagan god, 'cause the Roman will fall real quick." (Though there is a oft-old story about Head once tackling and biting Elvis on the ankle).

As the '70s wore on, Head found himself at a crossroads, as rock and pop styles changed. Head eventually went country, and scored a succession of chart hits for several years. But problems with management and labels in Nashville turned ugly for him by the mid-'80s. "I just told 'em I can't take the politics here," says Head. "I had to buy my own way out of my own contract."

With that, Head effectively ended his recording career, but he never quit performing and is still spry approaching 70. "Well, you know, my son thinks he's badder than I am, so I gotta stay in shape, 'cause one day I may have to whoop him!" he says.

After 20 years, Head returned to the studio recently, working up a few new tracks, including a cover of Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley" that will be available on Memphis Pops Fest's sampler (free with admission to the show). "All B.S. aside, I love what I do so much. And I can't wait to get back to Memphis," says Head, offering one last warning, "And y'all better be ready. Yessir!"

-- Bob Mehr: 529-2517