Who recorded it first

Bring It On Home

Not a Led Zeppelin original — a 1963 Sonny Boy Williamson II recording for Checker

Because it closes Led Zeppelin II and the original 1969 sleeve credited it to the band alone — the album notes name Page and Plant, with no mention of Willie Dixon — “Bring It On Home” is widely heard as a Led Zeppelin original. It is not. Sonny Boy Williamson II cut it in Chicago on 11 January 1963 for Chess’s Checker subsidiary, and it was written by the Chess staff songwriter Willie Dixon. Williamson died in May 1965; the single was issued in 1966, after his death, and never reached the charts. Dixon’s name was added to the credit only after the settlements, and the 2014 reissue credits him alone.

The record

Who recorded it first

Record
“Bring It On Home” b/w “Down Child”
Artist
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Written by
Willie Dixon
Label & catalogue
Checker Records 1134 (US 7″, 1966)

Released Recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago on 11 January 1963 and held back for three years. Chess put it on the compilation The Real Folk Blues in January 1966, and Checker Records issued it as a 7″ single, catalogue number 1134, backed with “Down Child.”

Charted Did not chart.

How we checked it

The session date, label, personnel and the 2:35 running time come from Wikipedia’s article on the Sonny Boy Williamson II song ↗, which also records that it did not reach the charts.

The single itself — Checker 1134, US 7″, 1966, coupled with “Down Child” — is catalogued in MusicBrainz ↗, whose entry for the recording gives the same 2:35 length.

That the famous version is a 1969 album track, and that newer pressings credit Willie Dixon alone, is confirmed on the Led Zeppelin II article ↗.

Dixon’s own 1987 out-of-court settlement with Led Zeppelin over this song is recorded in his Wikipedia biography ↗.

Wikipedia: “Bring It On Home” (Sonny Boy Williamson II song)
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Fact-check

Right band, wrong claim

Led Zeppelin’s recording is the one almost everyone knows, and the original sleeve credit encouraged the confusion. Here is who actually did what.

The beliefNot the originators

Led Zeppelin

Their version, recorded in 1969, closes Led Zeppelin II — a US and UK number-one album. The opening and closing passages deliberately quote Williamson’s record.

The originalFirst recording

Sonny Boy Williamson II

Recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago on 11 January 1963 and issued by Checker Records as catalogue number 1134, backed with “Down Child.” It did not chart.

The writerComposer

Willie Dixon

Chess’s staff songwriter wrote it and co-produced the session. Newer Led Zeppelin releases credit him alone.

First recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson II on 11 January 1963 for Checker Records — written by Willie Dixon, and released in 1966, after Williamson had died.

Context

Why the cover swallowed the original

The original had almost every disadvantage a record can have. It sat in the Chess vault for three years after the January 1963 session; its singer died before it was released; when Checker finally put it out in 1966 it did not chart. Led Zeppelin’s version, by contrast, arrived as the closing track of an album that went to number one in both Britain and America, and was played live regularly through late 1969 and 1970.

There is a second reason, and it is the one that did the real damage. The original Led Zeppelin II sleeve credited the song to the band alone — the album notes name Page and Plant — so a listener who checked the label had no way to learn that the song was Willie Dixon’s, or that Sonny Boy Williamson II had recorded it first. Chess’s publisher Arc Music sued; the band settled for an undisclosed sum, saying the quotation had been intended as tribute. Dixon, who had not been told about that suit, brought his own action and settled it in 1987. His name was added to the credit only afterwards, and the 2014 reissue credits the song to him alone.

The chronology, step by step
  • 11 January 1963 — Sonny Boy Williamson II records “Bring It On Home” at Chess Studios in Chicago, produced by Leonard Chess, Phil Chess and Willie Dixon, with Matt “Guitar” Murphy on guitar, Milton Rector on bass, Al Duncan on drums and organ by Lafayette Leake or Billy Emerson.
  • 24 May 1965 — Williamson dies in Helena, Arkansas.
  • January 1966 — the recording appears on the Chess compilation The Real Folk Blues.
  • 1966 — Checker issues it as a 7″ single, catalogue number 1134, backed with “Down Child.” It does not reach the charts.
  • 22 October 1969 — Led Zeppelin’s version closes Led Zeppelin II on Atlantic; the album reaches No. 1 in the US and the UK.
  • Arc Music, Chess’s publishing arm, sues Led Zeppelin without Dixon’s knowledge; the band settles for an undisclosed cash sum.
  • 1987 — Dixon settles his own out-of-court action against Led Zeppelin covering “Bring It On Home” and “Whole Lotta Love.”
  • Later Led Zeppelin releases credit “Bring It On Home” solely to Willie Dixon.
A number-one album will always out-shout a single that never charted.

The original recording artist

Sonny Boy Williamson II

b. c. 1912 · d. 1965 · American blues singer and harmonica player

Born Alex “Rice” Miller in Mississippi around 1912, he took the name of an earlier Chicago harmonica player in 1941 and spent the rest of his life outplaying the borrowed reputation. After first recording for Trumpet Records in 1951, he moved to Chess’s Checker subsidiary, where he made roughly seventy sides between 1955 and 1964 — among them “Don’t Start Me Talkin’,” “Help Me” and “Checkin’ Up on My Baby.” He toured Europe in the early 1960s at the height of the British blues boom, recording with the Yardbirds and the Animals, and died in Helena, Arkansas in May 1965 — before the “Bring It On Home” single reached shops.

Popularly credited as the original

Led Zeppelin

English rock band, formed 1968 · Atlantic Records

Recorded in May 1969, with a further July session reported, and produced by Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s “Bring It On Home” closes Led Zeppelin II, an album that topped both the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart after its 22 October 1969 US release. The band framed it as homage: the opening and closing passages deliberately quote Williamson’s record, with a harder, faster Page–Plant section in between. The homage was real and the playing is superb; the sleeve credit was the problem, and it has since been corrected.

The songwriter

Willie Dixon

1915–1992 · American songwriter, bassist and Chess Records producer

Dixon was the engine room of Chess Records — producer, talent scout, session bassist and staff songwriter — and wrote or co-wrote more than five hundred songs, including “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Little Red Rooster” and “Spoonful.” He produced “Bring It On Home” with Leonard and Phil Chess as well as writing it. He spent much of his later life fighting for credit and royalties on his own catalogue: he sued Chess’s publisher Arc Music in 1977 and founded his own publishing company, and in 1987 settled an out-of-court action against Led Zeppelin covering “Bring It On Home” and “Whole Lotta Love.”