Nobody Loves The Hulk

If you're ever paging through any Marvel comic books in 1970, you probably noticed this ad:

Now, you see this, and you think, "OK, this is some quickie rip-off song by hucksters out to take $1 from gullible comic fans."

Not so! This was an actual real song by a real band with a real pedigree: Witness:



And the lyrics:

The Traits (aka Roy Head and The Traits) were formed by a bunch of high school kids in the late 1950s. You'll often see them described as a "garage band," but that's pretty inaccurate (although Nobody Loves The Hulk, recorded at the end of their run, does have kind of a garage-band sound). Nope, they were a blues/rockabilly band initially, and were a fairly well known in Texas, with a number of regional hits.

After various member shuffles and adding horns, they hit it fairly big with Treat Her Right, which made it to #2 on the Billboard charts (damn you, Beatles!!) in 1965, and became one of the most covered songs ever...but the original version is still the best:



After Roy Head went on to pursue a  solo career, The Traits kept on keeping on, going through various lead singers, and at one point recording with Johnny Winter before Woodstock made him JOHNNY WINTER.

Nobody Loves The Hulk came at the end of The Traits run...most of the members went on to other, non-musical pursuits. And no, they didn't have any other comic-related songs. And kudos to their label for using the guerrilla marketing of a comic book ad to try and find an audience for the song.

Because, dammit, that's a pretty catchy song. Crank it up and blast it to the whole office today!!