He used a stick to push a wagon carrying his older brother Brownie McGhee, who had contracted polio.
The original lyrics of the song were as follows: Drinkin' that mess is our delight, And when we get drunk, start fightin' all night.
Cover versions were recorded by Wynonie Harris, Lionel Hampton, Big John Greer, Johnny Burnette, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag (as "Wine").
"Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" continued to be popular throughout the 1950s in cover versions by various artists, including Malcolm Yelvington in 1954, Johnny Burnette in 1957, and Jerry Lee Lewis in 1959.
[5] McGhee continued to make records for Atlantic and created popular songs such as "Tennessee Waltz Blues",[1] "Drank Up All the Wine Last Night", "Venus Blues", "Let's Do It", and "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show", but his music career overall was not successful.
[1] There he recorded a number of rock-and-roll songs, such a "Whiskey, Women and Loaded Dice", "Head Happy with Wine", "Jungle Juice", "Six to Eight", "Double Crossin' Liquor", "Dealin' from the Bottom", and "Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter".
[5] In the late '50s McGhee recorded LP album tracks with Sonny Terry for the Folkways and Prestige-Bluesville labels.
In 1960 he cut the songs "Sleep in Job" and "Money Fever" in New York with Sonny Terry.
[6] McGhee died of lung cancer in The Bronx, New York, on August 15, 1961, at the age of forty-three.