"You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (alternatively "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover") is a 1962 song by rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley. Written by

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

, the song was one of Diddley's last record chart hits. Unlike many of his well-known songs, "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" does not rely on the Bo Diddley beat. A variety of rock and other performers have recorded renditions of the song.

Composition and lyrics

"You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" is based on a sixteen-bar blues structure that "boasts a beat that's utterly compulsive and primordial, but closer to a way-speeded up walking rhythm than to the standard Diddley pattern", according to

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

in a song review. Percussionist

Jerome Green Jerome Green (c.1934 – c.1973) was an American percussionist and occasional lyricist and vocalist, known for playing maracas and acting as Bo Diddley's foil in his performances and on his recordings in the 1950s and early 1960s. Biography G ...

added

maracas A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...

to the recording, which Unterberger calls "an utterly entrancing rhythm that does much to add to the power of the song". While noting Diddley's rhythm guitar contribution, Dixon biographer Mitsutoshi Inaba comments on Diddley's "unique vocal style": "He freely uses various vocal techniques: glissandi in a wide range, howling, changing dynamics and tone quality, altering melodic and non-melodic singing." Dixon's lyrics describe a variety of situations to illustrate that one should not judge them by their appearance, before repeating the title phrase: In his autobiography, Dixon explained that the lyrics were "his o Diddley'sbag 100%... and when I told him about it, he liked it immediately". Diddley's original recording breaks the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

by encouraging the listener to turn his or her radio up after the first verse.

Releases and charts

Checker Records Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Record ...

, one of the Chess brothers' record labels, released "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" as a single in July 1962. A review in ''Billboard'' magazine gave the single's flip-side "I Can Tell" four stars, while noting "the backing ingle sideis a stomping groove", which it gave three stars. However, only "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" appeared in the magazine's charts, reaching number 21 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

and number 48 on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online stream ...

. Checker included the song on his '' Bo Diddley'' studio album released in August 1962 (not the same as the 1958 compilation album by the same name). Later, the song appeared on several Diddley compilations, such as the comprehensive ''Bo DiddleyThe Chess Box'' (1990) and the single CD '' His Best'' (1997). Diddley's recording is also included the box set Chess prepared for songwriter Willie Dixon.

Legacy

In his biography, Unterberger includes "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" as one of Diddley's "stone-cold standards of early, riff-driven rock & roll at its funkiest". The song has been recorded by numerous artists in a variety of styles.

References

{{Authority control 1962 singles Bo Diddley songs The Yardbirds songs Songs written by Willie Dixon 1962 songs Checker Records singles Sixteen bar sections