"Four-Four" was developed from an earlier piano-based blues theme titled "The Forty-Fours".
Little Brother Montgomery, who is usually credited with early performances of the song, described it as a "barrelhouse, honky-tonk blues" without any lyrics. He taught it to another blues pianist, Lee Green, who taught it to Roosevelt Sykes. Sykes explained: Sykes added lyrics to the tune and recorded it as "44 Blues" on June 14, 1929, for
Okeh Records. According to blues historian
Paul Oliver, Sykes' lyrics "played on the differing interpretations of the phrase 'forty-fours'—the train number 44, the
.44 caliber revolver and the 'little cabin' on which was the number 44, presumably a prison cell". After Sykes recording, Green and Montgomery recorded their versions of "The Forty-Fours". While instrumentally both were similar to Sykes' version, the subject matter and lyrics were different. Green recorded his version, titled "Number 44 Blues," two months after Sykes and about one year later, Montgomery recorded his version titled "Vicksburg Blues". Sykes' version was the most popular and "was to be far more influential than Green's version". Oliver believes that Sykes lyrics, with their "overlays of meaning" accounted for the popularity of his song among singers. Many versions of "Forty-Four" appeared over the following years, including some that bore little resemblance to the original except for the title. Sykes, Green, and Montgomery recorded it themselves ten times between 1929 and 1936. ==Howlin' Wolf version==