"Clearly Handy's version is a rewrite based on an earlier song." And ditto with the Smythe etc. one, from the look of it ("I'm blue all day long" etc. isn't folk blues language, just like "Come be my wife, Kate" etc. isn't folk blues language). Handy admitted, through his good friend the blues researcher Abbe Niles, that he learned the basic song from another musician and changed it.

Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff have pointed out that a George and Nana Coleman were performing a tune called "How Long Must I Wait" in 1913, perhaps a version of this song.