Various Artists - Covered: Willie Dixon, Volume 3: 1972-2012

Here's the third and last of the "Covered" songwriter series for Willie Dixon.

Dixon had poor health for most of the time period featured here. He eventually lost a leg due to diabetes complications, and finally died in 1992. As a result, most or all of the songs here are from earlier years, but he's such a blues giant that his songs continue to be covered every year. 

As I mentioned previously, my rule was to have each artist limited to just one song for the whole series, to showcase the diversity of those who have played his songs. For some songs, it was extremely tough to pick just one. Take "I Just Want to Make Love to You." Well over 100 artists have recorded covers - it seems to be a go-to song for anyone expressing horny urges. Just some of the famous names covering this song include: Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, B. B. King, Etta James, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Righteous Brothers, Ann-Margaret, Lou Rawls, Bo Diddley, Isaac Hayes, Junior Wells, Eric Burdon, Paul Rodgers, Buddy Guy, Cliff Richard, Peter Frampton, Dion, the Isley Brothers, Santana, Tom Petty. So how the heck could I pick just one version?! In the end, I went with Foghat's version since they had a hit with it, and they performed it in a fairly different style.

The whole point of the "Covered" series is to highlight the skills of songwriters who generally didn't get famous as performers too. I hope you enjoy these three Willie Dixon albums and gain a new appreciation of his role behind many blues classics.

01 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Foghat)
02 Help Me (Van Morrison)
03 Built for Comfort (UFO)
04 Violent Love (Oingo Boingo)
05 Close to You (Byther Smith)
06 Let Me Love You, Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
07 I Can't Quit You Baby (Otis Rush)
08 Howlin' for My Baby [Howlin' for My Darling] (George Thorogood & the Destroyers)
09 Third Degree (Eric Clapton)
10 Hidden Charms (Elvis Costello)
11 I Want to Be Loved (Cassandra Wilson)
12 You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover (Strypes)
13 Bring It on Home (Joan Osborne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15833659/CoveredWilleD_1972-2012_Volum3_atse.zip.html

Once again, I don't know any details of where or when the cover art photo is from. But I'm guessing he's older than for the other two photos, just based on looks. And for once I was able to use an actual color photo of him instead of colorizing one. I did change the background color some, since the original happened to be close to the yellow I use for all the text in this series.