How Many More Years formed his own band in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1948, billing himself as "The Howlin' Wolf". He began broadcasting on radio station KWEM in West Memphis, and was heard by Sam Phillips who signed him for Memphis Recording Service. He recorded "How Many More Years" at the MRS studio at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, in or about July 1951, singing and playing harmonica with a band comprising (probably) Ike Turner (piano), Willie Johnson (guitar), and Willie Steele (drums). The repetitious bass-string boogie line resembles the one played in the traditional blues standard "Forty-Four". The record's original A-side, "Moanin' at
How Many More Times Wolf's "How Many More Years" (1951), as well as other songs by blues musicians he admired at the time of recording. In 1970, "How Many More Times" was dropped from Led Zeppelin's typical setlist, although they continued to perform it on occasion until the early stages of their 1975 North American tour, when it was re-introduced in full as a result of Jimmy Page's injured finger, which temporarily prevented him from playing the more challenging "Dazed and Confused". In a contemporary review for "Led Zeppelin" on release, John Mendelsohn of "Rolling Stone" called "How Many More Times" as the album's