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 Are Things in Glocca Morra? made up by composer Lane, who had devised a dummy lyric beginning with the line, "There's a glen in Glocca Morra". Harburg liked the name but insisted on changing the line to "How are things in Glocca Morra?" because this is personal and immediately evocative of nostalgia and homesickness. James Stephens' work "The Crock of Gold" (first published in 1912) refers to "the leprechauns of Gort na Gloca Mora" ("the field of the big rock" in Gaelic). It is unknown whether Lane or Harburg were aware of the novel or if this is a coincidence. Many versions of this song