How Many More Years Midnight", described by Phillips as "the most different record I ever heard", was probably recorded at a different session. Phillips had not yet set up Sun Records and regularly leased his recordings to the Chess label in Chicago. The record was issued as Chess 1479 on 15 September 1951, with "Moanin' at Midnight" as the A-side and "How Many More Years" as the B-side. "Moanin' at Midnight" entered the R&B chart on 10 November 1951, and was followed four weeks later by "How Many More Years", which became the more popular side and rose to no.4 on the chart. The
How Many More Years of the power chord. T-Bone Burnett said of the recording: The first major breakthrough Sam [Phillips] made was with Howlin' Wolf. That's when he started bringing the bass and drums up loud. Back in those days the bass and drums were background instruments; it was all about the horns and the piano, the melody instruments, and Sam brought the rhythm section right up front, and that became rock 'n' roll. That was a big shift... In some ways "How Many More Years" by Wolf would be the first rock ’n’ roll song because that has the guitar lick that became