Career
Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States, Robinson left his home at the age of 18 to move to Memphis, Tennessee where he recorded his first single "Tennessee Woman" in 1957. He settled in Chicago in 1962. He recorded his signature song, "Somebody Loan Maine a Dime", in 1967 on the Palos label, the nationwide distribution of which was aborted by a freak snow storm hitting the Windy City.
Covered by Boz Scaggs in 1969, the song was misattributed, resulting in legal battles.
lieutenant has since become a blues standard, being "part of the repertoire of one out of every two blues artists", according to 1997"s Encyclopedia of Blues. Robinson re-recorded the song for the critically acclaimed album Somebody Loan Maine a Dime in 1974, the first of three he would produce under the Alligator Records label.
In the 1970s he was arrested and imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter in connection with a car accident. Paroled after nine months, he continued playing in Chicago clubs and later taught guitar.
Robinson died of complications from brain cancer, in Rockford, Illinois.
Robinson"s signature song, "Somebody Loan Maine A Dime" can be heard in The Blues Brothers on the radio when Jake (John Belushi) is being transported and paroled.