You Don't Love Me (Willie Cobbs song)

Willie Cobbs, an Arkansas native, moved to Chicago in 1947, where he began exploring the burgeoning blues scene centered around Maxwell Street.[1] While in Chicago, he learned the blues harp from Little Walter and began an association with pianist Eddie Boyd.[1] In 1958, Cobbs recorded an unsuccessful single for Ruler Records and auditioned for James Bracken and Vee-Jay Records, who felt that he sounded too similar to their biggest artist, Jimmy Reed.[1]

Cobbs and Boyd eventually returned to Arkansas and began performing in the local clubs.[2] Cobbs claims that he heard a field hand singing "Uh, uh, uh, you don't love me, yes I know" to a haunting melody one morning and that inspired him to write a song.[3] Music journalist Rob Chapman calls "You Don't Love Me" "Willie Cobbs's 1961 adaptation and retitling of Bo Diddley's 1955 'She's Fine, She's Mine'."[4] Bo Diddley recorded the song in 1955 for Checker Records, a Chess subsidiary.[5]

Cobbs began performing "You Don't Love Me" to enthusiastic audiences and approached a record label in Memphis, Tennessee, with the hope of recording it.[2] The owner of the Home of the Blues record company turned him down—"He said, 'It's a damn good song but you can't sing'", Cobbs recalled.[2] However, two other producers, Billy Lee Riley and Stan Kessler, overheard the audition and offered to record him.[2]

Cobbs and Boyd entered the Echo Studio in Memphis to record "You Don't Love Me" for Riley's Mojo Records.[6] Cobbs sang while Boyd accompanied him on piano.[7] According to Cobb and Boyd, Sammy Lawhorn, who later was a member of Muddy Waters' touring band, provided the distinctive guitar figure.[6][3][7] A Vee-Jay discography lists Rico Collins on tenor saxophone, Wilbert Harris on drums, and Cobbs on bass.[7] However, Cobbs claims that an unknown bassist performed for the session, after his regular bass player had quit.[3] Instead of the common twelve-bar blues arrangement, the verses are sung on the IV chord, while the instrumentation repeats the riff on the I chords:[8]

Ah ah ah, you don't love me yes I know (2×)
'Cause you left me baby, and I have no place to go

Cobbs' song uses Bo Diddley's guitar riff and melody, as well as many of the lyrics, including the key "you don't love me, you don't love me I know" line.[9] A review in Billboard magazine noted, "While this is a traditional blues in form, the unusual, almost exotic, arrangement with its hypnotic beat combined with Bo Diddley's anguished vocal takes this far out of the range of the ordinary".[10] Diddley uses a repeated figure on his tremolo-laden guitar and the first verses are sung without lyrics:

Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah (2×)
Well you don't love me baby, you don't love me I know

The lyrics "she's fine she's mine" do not appear in the song (Diddley had recorded an unrelated song, "You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)", with different music and lyrics two months prior on March 2, 1955, which was released on his Go Bo Diddley album). "She's Fine She's Mine" was included as the B-side to his second single, "Diddley Daddy".[11] Although "Diddley Daddy" became a hit, "She's Fine She's Mine" did not appear in the record charts.[12]

Almost immediately after Mojo Records issued the single, it became a number one hit in Memphis.[2] Hoping to reach a wider audience, Kessler and Riley sold the master recording to Home of the Blues Records, the label that had previously turned Cobbs down.[2] They subsequently issued the single and in an April 3, 1961, review of new records in Billboard, it was listed under "R&B Limited Potentials".[13] Home of the Blues also leased the single to Vee-Jay Records (who had also passed on recording Cobbs), who issued it; a review by Billboard on November 27, 1961, indicated that it had "strong sales potential".[14] (An additional release by Ruler Records has overdubbed organ.)[7]

Trouble ensued when Riley took the songwriting credit for "Shimmy Shimmy Walk, Part 1", an instrumental version of the song recorded by the Megatons, a Louisiana-based group.[2] According to blues historian Gerard Herzhaft, Riley asserts that he was the only guitarist at Cobbs' Mojo session, contrary to Cobbs' and Lawhorn's recollections.[15] Lawsuits were filed, Vee-Jay stopped promoting the single, and it failed to reach the Billboard charts.[2] Cobbs has revisited "You Don't Love Me" several times, including in 1998 for his Pay or Do 11 Months & 29 Days album.[16]

Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft notes that "the riff of 'You Don't Love Me' has inspired quantities of bluesmen".[35] The song has been interpreted and recorded by artists in a variety of styles, with some following the Diddley/Cobbs versions and others following the Wells/Guy versions. Gary Walker recorded a version that reached number 26 in March 1966 on the UK Singles Chart.[36]

• Billboard (June 11, 1955). "Bo Diddley – record review". Billboard. Vol. 67, no. 24. ISSN 0006-2510.
• Billboard (April 3, 1961a). "Reviews and Ratings of New Records". Billboard. Vol. 73, no. 18. ISSN 0006-2510.
• Billboard (November 27, 1961b). "Reviews of New Singles". Billboard. Vol. 73, no. 47. ISSN 0006-2510.
• Billboard (December 11, 1961c). "Spotlight Singles of the Week – Pop". Billboard. Vol. 78, no. 48. ISSN 0006-2510.
• Billboard (February 24, 1962). "Hot 100". Billboard. Vol. 74, no. 8. ISSN 0006-2510.
• Chapman, Rob (2015). Psychedelia and Other Colours. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571282753.
• Dahl, Bill (1996). "Willie Cobbs". In Erlewine, Michael; Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Koda, Cub (eds.). All Music Guide to the Blues: The Experts' Guide to the Best Blues Recordings. All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-424-3.
• Harper, Alan (2016). Waiting for Buddy Guy: Chicago Blues at the Crossroads. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252098284.
• Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). "You Don't Love Me". Encyclopedia of the Blues. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-252-8.
• Herzhaft, Gerard (2003). "You Don't Love Me". La gran enciclopedia del blues. American Bar Association. ISBN 978-84-95601-82-7.
• Jones, Roben (2012). Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-402-7.
• Kooper, Al (2008). Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards. New York City: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1617745362.
• Leadbitter, Mike; Slaven, Neil (1987). Blues Records, 1943–1970: A Selective Discography. Record Information Services. ISBN 978-0-907872-07-8.
• Malvinni, David (2013). Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-8255-3.
• Moskowitz, Stanley (2005). Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-33158-9.
• O'Neal, Jim; van Singel, Amy (2002). The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interviews from Living Blues Magazine. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-93654-5.
• Titon, Jeff Todd (2008). Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-534-59539-5.
• Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942–1988. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. ISBN 0-89820-068-7.