Bo Diddley - Have Guitar Will Travel (1960)

Have Guitar Will Travel is the third studio album by rock and roll pioneer and blues icon Bo Diddley. It was released on the Checker Records label in 1960. The song "Cops and Robbers" was released as an A-side of Checker single #850 in November 1956,[6] the b-side "Down Home Special" did not appear on this album. The song "Mona (I Need You Baby)" was released as the b-side to "Hey! Bo Diddley" in October 1957, the a-side appearing on Bo Diddley in 1959. "Say Man, Back Again" was released as a single in November 1959[7] The rest of the songs were album-only releases. Several songs on Have Guitar Will Travel were covered by many British Invasion bands.[8] Originally recorded and released in 1956 by Boogaloo and his Gallant Crew lead by singer Kent Harris (reissued on the Road Songs collection by Frémeaux et Associés), "Cops and Robbers" was recorded by The Rolling Stones, Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders, Downliners Sect, and George Thorogood. Says AllMusic: "Amazingly, Bo Diddley's third album -- containing classics such as "Cops and Robbers," "Run Diddley Daddy," and "Mona (I Need You Baby)" -- has only been reissued on vinyl, and even that's out of print. More than one British Invasion band learned what they needed to know about American rock & roll from the songs on this record (the Stones cut "Cops and Robbers" at their earliest recording session, and later released a killer version of "Mona," though the most interesting British version of the latter was done by an all-girl band with an attitude called the Liverbirds). This record is every bit as raunchy as Diddley's first two albums (the guitars may even be crunchier, and the singing shows more range), and has more than enough to recommend it to collectors and fans. This is the album that began the funny cover photos on Diddley's records."