The Cobra Records Story (1993)

About this title: If the 50 tracks on this double-CD box sound an awful lot like they could have come off of any of MCA's various Chess boxes -- but especially the Willie Dixon volume -- it's no accident. Cobra Records was an upstart Chicago-based label that existed for a little over three years at the end of the 1950s, founded by Eli Toscano and Willie Dixon as competition for Phil and Leonard Chess's Chess Records, where Dixon had worked -- and been regularly cheated of fees and royalties -- since the end of the 1940s. His answer was to leave the employ of the Chess brothers and go to work with Toscano, and ... read more

Tracks:

1. I Can't Quit You Baby [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
2. Just Wailin' [Originally Titled Just Whaling] [Myers]
3. I Can't Quit You Baby [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
4. Sit Down Baby [Alternate Version] [Dixon/Bedno]
5. I Can't Quit You Baby [Dixon]
6. Rock & Roll Boogie [Alternate Version] [Dixon/Bedno]
7. Need My Baby [Horton]
8. Have a Good Time [Dixon]
9. My Love Will Never Die [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
10. Violent Love [Dixon]
11. Highway 61 [Luandrew]
12. It's You Baby [Luandrew]
13. Groaning the Blues [Dixon]
14. If You Were Mine [Dixon]
15. Crying the Blues [Foster]
16. Little Girl [Foster]
17. I Don't Care Who Knows [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
18. All Your Love [Magic Sam]
19. Love Me With a Feeling [Magic Sam]
20. Love That Woman [Rush]
21. Jump Sister Bessie [Dixon]
22. Satisfied [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
23. My Love [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
24. Shake It [Alternate Version] [Jenkins]
25. Look Whatcha Done [Magic Sam]
26. Everything Gonna Be Alright [Magic Sam]
27. Eli Toscano Blues [Outtake from Sunnyland Slim Session]
28. Three Times a Fool [Rush]
29. She's a Good 'Un [Eskridge/White]
30. Ain't Gonna Cry [Everett]
31. All Night Long [Dixon]
32. I Cry for You [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
33. All My Whole Life [Magic Sam]
34. It Takes Time [Rush]
35. Checking on My Baby [Rush]
36. Row Your Boat [Alternate Version] [Clark]
37. Sit and Cry (The Blues) [Dixon/Guy]
38. Try to Quit You Baby [Toscano]
39. Easy Baby [Alternate Version] [Dixon]
40. 21 Days in Jail [Alternate Version] [Dixon/Weaver]
41. Call Me If You Need Me [Harris]
42. Roll Your Moneymaker [Harris]
43. Double Trouble [Rush]
44. Keep on Loving Me Baby [Rush]
45. This Is the End [Guy/Turner]
46. You Sure Can't Do [Jones]
47. All Your Love (I Miss Loving) [Rush]
48. My Baby's a Good 'Un [Rush]
49. Matchbox [Turner]
50. You've Got to Lose [Turner]
51. Box Top [Turner]
52. You Keep on Worrying Me [Turner]
53. (I Know) You Don't Love Me [Turner]
54. Down and Out [Turner]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.