| "You Don't Love Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Willie Cobbs | ||||
| B-side | "You're So Hard to Please" | |||
| Released | 1960 | |||
| Format | 7" 45 rpm record | |||
| Recorded | Memphis, Tennessee 1960 |
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| Genre | Blues | |||
| Length | 2:55 | |||
| Label | Mojo (Cat. no. 2168)[1][2] | |||
| Producer | Billy Lee Riley, Stan Kessler | |||
| Willie Cobbs singles chronology | ||||
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"You Don't Love Me" is a blues song recorded by Willie Cobbs in 1960. It is based on an earlier song by Bo Diddley and has become a "blues classic" that has been interpreted and recorded by a variety of performers.[3]
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In 1955, Bo Diddley recorded "She's Fine She's Mine" for the B-side to his second single, "Diddley Daddy" (Checker 819). Accompanying Diddley (vocal and guitar) were Billy Boy Arnold (harmonica), Clifton James (drums), and Jerome Green on maracas. The song features a repeated figure on Diddley's tremolo-laden guitar. The first verses are sung without lyrics:
"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".[4] Diddley recorded an unrelated song, "You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)" with completely different music and lyrics two months prior on March 2, 1955, which was released on his Go Bo Diddley album.
In 1960, Willie Cobbs recorded "You Don't Love Me" using Bo Diddley's repeating guitar figure. The lyrics "she's fine she's mine" do not appear in his version, but the complete melody does, as well as much of the original lyrics including the key "you don't love me, you don't love me I know" line. The main difference between the original Bo Diddley version and Willie Cobbs' is the title of the song.
According to Eddie Boyd, Sammy Lawhorn played the guitar, Boyd provided the piano, and unidentified performers supplied saxophone (doubling the guitar line), bass, and drums.[5]
Cobbs' original Mojo Records release became a local Memphis hit.[6] The song was released by Vee-Jay Records, but because of copyright issues, they stopped promoting the single[6] and it failed to reach the Billboard charts. Cobbs has revisited "You Don't Love Me" several times, including in 1998 for his Pay or Do 11 Months & 29 Days album.
In 1965, Junior Wells with Buddy Guy recorded the song as "You Don't Love Me Baby" for their influential 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues. Their version altered the guitar figure somewhat and added some new lyrics:
Junior Wells later recorded the song for his Coming at You album; Buddy Guy also recorded it for his Hold That Plane album.
Jamaican singer Dawn Penn recorded "You Don't Love Me" in 1967 (Coxsone CS 1008). She used most of Bo Diddley's melody and lyrics, but her version featured a rocksteady backing arrangement.
In 1994, she remade it as the dancehall-influenced "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)", which was an international hit.[7]
It has been noted that "the riff of 'You Don't Love Me' has inspired quantities of bluesmen".[3] The song has been interpreted and recorded by a variety of performers, some following the Diddley/Cobbs versions and others following the Wells/Guy versions (except where noted):