"Forty Days and Forty Nights" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

 in 1956. Called "a big, bold record", it was a hit, spending six weeks in the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number seven. "Forty Days and Forty Nights" has been interpreted and recorded by a variety of artists.

Original song

"Forty Days and Forty Nights" is a mid-tempo blues song with an irregular number of bars written by Bernard Roth (who also wrote Muddy Waters' "Just to Be with You"). An early review called it "a dramatic piece of material with effective lyrics".

Forty days and forty nights, since my baby left this town

Sun shinin' all day long, but the rain keep falling down

She's my life I need her so, why she left I just don't know ...

Backing Muddy Waters (vocals) are Little Walter

Little Walter

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...

 (harmonica), Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...

 (bass), possibly Fred Below

Fred Below

Fred Below was a leading blues drummer, best known for his innovative work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. Nobody laid more of the Chicago blues rhythmic foundations, particularly its archetypal backbeat, than Fred Below.-Career:He was born in Chicago, and started playing drums...

 or Francis Clay

Francis Clay

Francis Clay , born and raised in Rock Island, Illinois,he started playing Jazz, professionally at the age of 15, played drums behind many of the biggest names of 20th century popular American music...

 (drums), Pat Hare

Pat Hare

Auburn "Pat" Hare was an American Memphis blues guitarist and singer.-Biography:He was born in Cherry Valley, Arkansas. He recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, serving as a sideman for Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and other artists...

 (guitar), and Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.-Career:...

 or Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...

 (second guitar). The song was recorded during Pat Hare's first recording session with Waters and "Hare's crunching power chords rippled with distortion that was well suited for blues in the rock and roll explosion".

The song was one of Waters' last charting singles and appears on several of his compilation albums, including the 1965 album The Real Folk Blues

The Real Folk Blues (Muddy Waters album)

The Real Folk Blues is a 1966 compilation album of Muddy Waters recordings, released on the Chess record label in January 1966. The album was the first release of The Real Folk Blues series and has since been re-released on multiple formats...

. He later recorded "Forty Days and Forty Nights" for the 1969 Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons (album)

Fathers and Sons is an album by American blues musician Muddy Waters, originally released as a double LP by Chess Records in August 1969....

album and the Authorized Bootleg: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium November 4–6, 1966 album released in 2009.

Other versions

"Forty Days and Forty Nights" has been recorded by various blues and other artists, including Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf (band)

Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...

 from Steppenwolf 7

Steppenwolf 7

Steppenwolf 7 is an album by the band Steppenwolf, released in 1970, and their fifth studio recording for Dunhill Records. It is the first Steppenwolf album with new bass player George Biondo. While the album featured Steppenwolf's trademark rock and roll sounds, none of the songs were able to...

, John Hammond, Jr.

John P. Hammond

John Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...

, Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon

Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

 from his Soul of a Man

Soul of a Man (Eric Burdon album)

Soul of a Man is a 2006 R&B album by Eric Burdon. It is dedicated to Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker and the city of New Orleans. It follows his 2004 comeback album My Secret Life and the 2005 live album & DVD Athens Traffic Live....

album, and Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

 for the Cadillac Records

Cadillac Records: Music From the Motion Picture

Cadillac Records: Music From the Motion Picture is the Grammy-nominated soundtrack album to the Golden Globe nominated film Cadillac Records...

soundtrack.