Handy told Abbe Niles that his version -- as was so common with Handy -- was based on a number he'd heard someone else do. The same was likely the case with Smythe's version. Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff have pointed out that the "How Long Must I Wait" that George and Nana Coleman were performing in 1913 may have been a version of the same song.

The structure of the lyrics, with all those syllables crammed into the first line, is apparently more consistent with blues generally as of about 1913 than blues generally as of about 1910. And also apparently more consistent with pro blues than with folk blues (suggesting that perhaps the Colemans' claim that they wrote "How Long Must I Wait," whatever it was exactly, was true).