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? also performed this during her famous two-week run at The Batley Variety Club in 1965. Jazz guitarist Gene Bertoncini recorded a memorable solo guitar arrangement of this song on his 1999 release, "Body and Soul". Violinist Vov Dylan recorded this with Pianist Glenn Amer for the album release "Cocktail Classics" (2016) The song was a particular favorite of President John F. Kennedy, as was "Finian's Rainbow." The song was parodied by Scotland the What? about their fictional Aberdeenshire village Auchterturra in "How Are Things in Auchterturra?" In the movie "Party Monster", Seth Green's character, James Saint James, makes a reference