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Willie Dixon's style of blues was one of the inspirations for a new generation of music, rock and roll.

Willie Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992) was a well-known American blues bassist, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

He was born as William James Dixon, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was a producer for Chess and Checker Records in Chicago and is considered one of the key figures in the creation of Chicago blues. He worked with Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulson, Willie Mabon, Memphis Slim, Washboard Sam, Jimmy Rogers, and others.

He had a colorful life. In his teens he had many scrapes with the law, and decided to hitchhike his way to Chicago. A giant of a man, he took up boxing, and was so successful as to win the Golden Gloves heavyweight title in 1936. His progress in learning to play the bass was halted when he resisted the World War II draft, and was imprisoned for ten months. After the war, he re-united with his bass playing tutor, Baby Doo Caston, forming the Big Three Trio, who went on to record for Columbia Records. Dixon subsequently signed for Chess Records as a recording artist, but by 1951 he was a full time employee of the label. His relationship with them was sometimes strained, although his spell there covered the years from 1948 to the early 1960s. During this time his output, and influence was prodigious.

Indeed, he once claimed "I am the blues." This may seem a little arrogant, but there is no doubt that he was one of the major influences on the genre, through his original and varied songwriting, live performances, recording, and copious production work. He later recorded on Bluesville Records.^[1]

His double bass playing was of a high standard. He appears on many of Chuck Berry's early recordings, further proving his linkage between the blues and the birth of rock 'n' roll.

Dixon's genius as a songwriter lay in refurbishing archaic Southern motifs, in contemporary arrangements. This produced songs with the backbone of the blues, and the agility of pop music. British R&B bands of the 1960s constantly drew on the Dixon songbook for inspiration.

In addition, as his songwriting and production work started to take a backseat, his organisational ability was utilised, putting together all-star, Chicago based blues ensembles for work in Europe.

In "New York Dolls: All Dolled Up," David Johansen tells a story about how Dixon used to offer meals to songwriters newly in Chicago from the Delta in exchange to rights for their songs. Johansen claims Hoochie Coochie Man was one such song and called Dixon "The Vampire of the Blues."

His health deteriorated in the 1970s and 1980s, due to long-term diabetes, and eventually his leg had to be amputated. Willie Dixon died in 1992 and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. As the songlist below demonstrates, his work was covered by a varied range of artists, from the blues, to modern day rock music practitioners.

Willie Dixon died of heart failure in Burbank, California in 1992 and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

He wrote many famous blues songs, usually producing and playing double bass when they were first recorded. Some of these, and the extensive subsequent covers, include:

• "29 Ways" – Marc Cohn, Willie Dixon, The Blues Band
• "300 Pounds Of Joy" – Howlin' Wolf
• "Back Door Man" – Howlin' Wolf, The Doors, Grateful Dead, Shadows of Knight, Bob Weir
• "Bring It on Home" – Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Dread Zeppelin
• "Built for Comfort" – Howlin' Wolf, Canned Heat, UFO
• "Crazy For My Baby" – Little Walter, Charlie Musselwhite, Willie Dixon
• "Close to You" – Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Doors, Sam Lay, Rock Bottom
• "Dead Presidents" – Little Walter, J. Geils Band
• "Diddy Wah Diddy" – Bo Diddley, Captain Beefheart, The Blues Band
• "Do Me Right" – Lowell Fulson
• "Do the Do" – Howlin' Wolf
• "Don't Tell Me Nothin´" – Willie Dixon – used in the movie "The Color of Money"
• "Everything But You" – Jimmy Witherspoon
• "Evil" – Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Canned Heat, Captain Beefheart, Monster Magnet, Derek and the Dominos, Gary Moore, Cactus, The Faces, Steve Miller, Koko Taylor
• "Hidden Charms" – Howlin' Wolf
• "Hoochie Coochie Man" – Muddy Waters, Shadows of Knight, The Nashville Teens, Dion, The Allman Brothers Band, Alexis Korner, Steppenwolf, Motörhead, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Healey, Manfred Mann
• "I Ain't Superstitious" – Howlin' Wolf, The Yardbirds, Grateful Dead, Megadeth, The Jeff Beck Group
• "I Can't Quit You Baby" – Little Milton, Otis Rush, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin, Gary Moore, Dread Zeppelin
• "If the Sea Was Whiskey" – Chris Thile
• "I Got What It Takes" – Koko Taylor
• "I Just Want To Make Love To You" – Muddy Waters, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Shadows of Knight, Mungo Jerry, Grateful Dead, Foghat, The Rolling Stones, Etta James, Van Morrison, Paul Rodgers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• "I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love" – Muddy Waters
• "Gone Daddy Gone" - the Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano incorporated elements of "I Just Want To Make Love To You" into his track; the former was later covered by Gnarls Barkley
• "I'm Ready" – Muddy Waters, Humble Pie, Buddy Guy, Aerosmith, Long John Baldry, Low Budget Blues Band
• "Insane Asylum" – Koko Taylor, Kathy McDonald & Sly Stone, Diamanda Galás, Asylum Street Spankers, The Detroit Cobras
• "It Don't Make Sense (You Can't Make Peace)" – Styx
• "I Want To Be Loved" – Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones
• "Let Me Love You Baby" – Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, B.B. King
• "Little Red Rooster" – Howlin' Wolf, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Luther Allison, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Big Mama Thornton
• "Mellow Down Easy" – Little Walter & His Jukes, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Black Crowes, Carey Bell, ZZ Top
• "Million Dollar Baby" – Dizzy Gillespie
• "My Babe" – Little Walter, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Spencer Davis Group, John P. Hammond, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fire and Drum Band
• "My Mind is Ramblin" – Rock Bottom
• "Nervous" – Willie Dixon
• "Pain In My Heart" – Willie Dixon
• "Pretty Thing" – Bo Diddley, Pretty Things, Canned Heat
• "Seventh Son" – Willie Mabon, Mose Allison, Bill Haley, Johnny Rivers, Sting, Climax Blues Band, Long John Baldry
• "Sin And City" – Buddy Guy
• "Shake For Me" – Stevie Ray Vaughan
• "Spoonful" – Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Shadows of Knight, Dion, Paul Butterfield, Cream, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, Willie King & the Liberators, The Who, Etta James
• "Study War No More"
• "The Same Thing" – Muddy Waters, George Thorogood, The Allman Brothers Band, Sue Foley, Marc Ford
• "The Seventh Son" – Willie Dixon
• "Third Degree" – Eddie Boyd, Eric Clapton, Leslie West
• "Tollin' Bells" – Lowell Fulson, Savoy Brown Blues Band
• "Too Late" – Little Milton
• "Too Many Cooks" – Buddy Guy, Robert Cray
• "Violent Love" – Otis Rush, The Big Three, Oingo Boingo, Dr. Feelgood
• "Walkin' The Blues" – Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, John Kay
• "Wang Dang Doodle" – Koko Taylor, Howlin' Wolf, Grateful Dead, Savoy Brown, Box Tops, PJ Harvey, Rufus Thomas, The Pointer Sisters, The Blues Band, Widespread Panic
• "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind" – Willie Dixon, Widespread Panic
• "When The Lights Go Out" – Jimmy Witherspoon, Kim Wilson
• "You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At Its Cover" – Bo Diddley, Shadows of Knight, Cactus, The Yardbirds, Beat Farmers, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Tim Hardin, The Merseybeats, Elliott Murphy, Long John Baldry, The Monkees, Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan.
• "You Don't Love Me" – Booker T. & the M.G.s, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills
• "You Know My Love" – Otis Rush
• "You'll Be Mine" – Howlin' Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan
• "You Gotta Be Loved" – Muddy Waters

  "Whole Lotta Love" – Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was appropriated, without credit, from Dixon's "You Gotta Be Loved". Although the main guitar riff was composed by Jimmy Page himself, Robert Plant based the lyrics on DIxon's version. Dixon and his music publisher received credit and royalties, after a 1985 lawsuit was settled out of court. This song is also sometimes called "You Need Love".

  "You Need Loving" recorded by The Small Faces in 1965, is another uncredited loose version of the song

• "You Shook Me" – Muddy Waters, Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin
• "Young Fashioned Ways" – Muddy Waters

1. ^ Prestiage Bluesville discography. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies.(December 2006)

• French singer-songwriter, Francis Cabrel, refers to Dixon in the song "Cent Ans de Plus" on his 1999 album, Hors-Saison. Cabrel cites the artist as one of a number of blues influences, including Charley Patton, Son House, Blind Lemon, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Blind Blake and Ma Rainey.

• Canadian rock musician Tom Cochrane wrote a song entitled "Willie Dixon Said" that appeared on his 1999 album X-Ray Sierra.

• Guinness Book of British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-190-X
• The Blues - From Robert Johnson To Robert Cray - ISBN 1-85868-255-X
• I Am the Blues - Willie Dixon, Don Snowden - ISBN 0-7043-0253-5
• Willie Dixon - Master Blues Composer: With Notes and Tablatur - ISBN 0-7935-0305-1
• Willie Dixon - I Am The Blues (DVD)

• Chicago Blues Festival

• Willie Dixon Induction into Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, 1980