Cobra Records Story
Cobra was the exception, a label that took its personality from its A&R; chief rather than its owner. Eli Toscano, who owned a record shop in West Chicago, founded the label in 1956, but he left the artistic decisions to his in-house songwriter-producer-bassist Willie Dixon, who had just left Chess Records in a money dispute. Dixon was a great talent scout, and he snatched the three best performers of the Chicago blues' second generation--Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam-- right out from under the Chess brothers' noses. He wrote them some great songs, and encouraged them to develop the single-note guitar leads that distinguished their style from the chordal style of their Mississippi-bred predecessors. The result was some of the finest Chicago blues ever recorded. --Geoffrey Himes