 Milt Gabler, Jordan's longtime producer at his longtime label, Deco Records, co-wrote and brought the song to Jordan. The other writers were Denver Darling and Vaughn Horton, who performed country and western music on WNEW in New York. Louis Jordan, who with his Timpani Five played their own brand of sophisticated pre-rock, pre-R&B music in the face of the big band era, reportedly heard the song and said, leave the chords in the blues vein and we'll see what we can do with it.