The album of Chicago blues music was solicited by Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records, who liked Wells' music enough to give the musician considerable freedom on the album despite concerns of commercial response.

[1] Wells was given the liberty to select his own sidemen and tracklist, without the usual limitation of songs two or three minutes long, and the album that resulted became Delmark's then best-seller,[1] a distinction that had not been surpassed as of 2003.

[1] Koester also recalls that 15 minutes of "releasable music", including a duet between Guy and Wells, was lost, with the tapes probably having been used later to record a rehearsal.

[3] Wells, too disappointed to want to try again, credits Koester's encouragement with the song's presence on the album.

[6] " [O]ne of the first to fully document the smoky ambience of a night at a West side nightspot in the superior acoustics of a recording studio", according to Bill Dahl of Allmusic,[4] it popularized Wells, opening doors for him at other, larger studios.