Called "a big, bold record",[2] it spent six weeks in the Billboard R&B chart, where it reached number seven.

[4] An early review in Billboard magazine described it as "a dramatic piece of material with effective lyrics".

[5] Forty days and forty nights, since my baby left this town Sun shinin' all day long, but the rain keep falling down She's my life I need her so, why she left I just don't know The song was recorded in January 1956 for Chess Records in Chicago during guitarist Pat Hare's first recording session with Waters.

[1] Biographer Robert Gordon writes, "Hare's crunching power chords rippled with distortion that was well suited for blues in the rock and roll explosion".

[2] In addition to Muddy Waters on vocals and Hare on guitar are Little Walter on harmonica, Willie Dixon on bass, possibly Fred Below or Francis Clay on drums, and Jimmy Rogers or Hubert Sumlin on second guitar.