Called a "genuine Hooker classic" by music critic Bill Dahl,[3] it is one of his best-known songs, with interpretations by several artists.

The backing musicians – guitarist Eddie Taylor, bassist George Washington, and drummer Tom Whitehead – adapted to his style and by the time "Dimples" was recorded they became "adept at anticipating his capricious moves".

[4] Hooker has given at least two different accounts about what inspired the lyrics: in one, he claimed to have written the song about a friend's wife and another where the subject is his own girlfriend.

The Animals did a fine version in which Eric Burdon put more passion into the lyric than Hooker did on his characteristically nonchalant vocal line on the original.

The Spencer Davis Group made it their first single in 1964, upping the tempo, adding harmonica, and boasting a quite exuberant vocal by a teenage Stevie Winwood.