The stop-time riff was "soon absorbed into the lingua franca of blues, R&B, jazz, and rock and roll", according to musicologist Robert Palmer, and is used in several popular songs.

Numerous musicians have recorded "Hoochie Coochie Man" in a variety of styles, making it one of the most interpreted Waters and Dixon songs.

The Blues Foundation and the Grammy Hall of Fame recognize the song for its influence in popular music and the US Library of Congress' National Recording Registry selected it for preservation in 2004.

[6] The song shows Delta blues guitar-style roots, but the lyrics place "emphasis on supernatural elements—gypsies, fortune telling, [and] luck", according to musicologist Robert Palmer.

[7] You know the gypsy woman told me that you your mother's bad luck child Well you havin' a good time now, but that'll be trouble after awhile[8] Waters expanded the theme in "Louisiana Blues", which was recorded in 1950 with Little Walter accompanying on harmonica.

[9] He sings of traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana, to acquire a mojo hand, a hoodoo amulet or talisman;[10] with its magical powers, he hopes "to show all you good lookin' women just how to treat your man".

[12][c] Although Waters was ambivalent about hoodoo,[d] he saw the music as having its own power:[11] When you're writin' them songs that are coming from down that way [Mississippi Delta], you can't leave out somethin' about that mojo thing.

Don Wilmeth identifies it as "a precursor of the striptease ... from the belly dance but punctuated with bumps and grinds and a combination of exposure, erotic movements, and teasing.

[29] Not long after the success of "Mad Love" in November 1953, Dixon approached Leonard Chess with "Hoochie Coochie Man", a new song he felt was right for Waters.

[29] Jimmy Rogers, who was Waters' second guitarist, remembered that it took a little longer: Dixon came to the club and he would hum it to Muddy and write the lyrics out.

[21] Considered the classic Chicago blues band,[33] music critic Bill Janovitz described Waters' group as "a who's who of bluesmen".

)[3][35] Pianist Otis Spann, who joined in 1953, and Dixon, in his debut on double bass for Waters' recording session, round out the group.

[36] Although there are some moments in the alternate take when a player's timing rushes or drags perceptibly, because the band is so tight, the difference with the master is only six seconds (for a nearly three-minute song).

[45] Although Palmer comments that the entire group phrases the riff in unison,[33] Boone describes it as a "heavy, unhurried counterpoint by all the instruments together".

[38] Campbell identifies the opening as actually having "two competing riffs"[35] or contrapuntal motion, with one played by Little Walter on an amplified harmonica and another by Waters on electric guitar.

[44] Writer Benjamin Filene sees this and Dixon's desire to tell complete stories, with the verses building on each other, as sharing elements of pop music.

[60] The chorus, "But you know I'm here, everybody knows I'm here, Well you know I'm the hoochie coochie man, everybody knows I'm here",[53] confirms the narrator's identity as both the subject of the gypsy's prophecy as well as an omnipotent seer himself.

[56] Dixon felt that the lyrics expressed part of the audience's unfulfilled desire to brag,[32] while Waters later admitted that they were supposed to have a comic effect.

[66] Marshall Chess arranged for Waters to remake the song using psychedelic rock-style instrumentation for the 1968 album Electric Mud, which was an attempt to reach a new audience.

[67] In 1972, Waters recorded an "unplugged" rendition of the song, with Louis Myers on acoustic guitar and George "Mojo" Buford on unamplified harmonica.

[66] His acclaimed At Newport 1960, one of the first live blues albums, includes a rendition by his later band with Spann, Pat Hare, James Cotton, and Francis Clay.

[66] This classic blues phrase would eventually work its way into the psyche of modern culture by being featured in musical genres from folk to rock and even children's songs as well as being used in television and radio commercials.

[74] All of these songs follow a similar lyrical theme and "helped shape Muddy Waters' image as the testosterone king of the blues", according to Gioia.

[33] In 1955, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller used the riff for "Riot in Cell Block Number 9"[33] (later reworked by the Beach Boys as "Student Demonstration Time") and "Framed" for the R&B group the Robins.

"Trouble", another Leiber and Stoller composition that uses the riff, was sung by Elvis Presley in the 1958 musical drama film King Creole.

American composer Elmer Bernstein quoted the figure in another film, The Man with the Golden Arm,[33] which received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1955.

The Foundation noted that "In addition to countless versions by Chicago blues artists, the song has been recorded by performers as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, and jazz organist Jimmy Smith"[79] to which Grove adds B.B.

[83] Representatives of the music industry and press voted it number 226 for Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".