It is unclear who actually wrote the original Sweet Home Chicago. The first mention of the song appears to be when Robert Johnson recorded it in 1936. One theory is that Woody Payne (to whom the song is attributed) claimed rights to the song and thus he gets credit as its author.

Robert Johnson is one of the most celebrated blues musicians. He died when he was just twenty-seven years old, but his impact on blues has been lasting and defining.

Johnson attended only two recording sessions. The first session was in November 1936 in a San Antonio, Texas hotel room. The three-day session yielded sixteen sides for the American Record Company, including "Sweet Home Chicago", "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", "Terraplane Blues", "Cross Road Blues", "Come on in My Kitchen", and "Walkin' Blues".

His second session was recorded in June 1937 in a Dallas warehouse, producing such Johnson classics as "Traveling Riverside Blues", "Love in Vain Blues", "Hell Hound on My Trail", "Me and the Devil Blues", and "Stones In My Passway". After this session, Johnson continued traveling, finally winding up in Greenwood, Mississippi, where he was poisoned with strychnine-laced whiskey after a brief encounter with the wife of a juke-joint owner in town. He died three days later. 

Johnson was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

The song's high point certainly has been during the Blues Brothers era, which began on Saturday Night live and continued with the movies.