Released on January 10, 1977, Hard Again was Muddy's first album on the Blue Sky label after leaving Chess Records, and was well received by critics.

In August 1975, Chess Records was sold to All Platinum Records and became a reissue label only. It was sometime after this when Muddy Waters left the label and he did not record any new studio material until he signed with Johnny Winter's Blue Sky label in October 1976.

The sessions for Hard Again were recorded across the space of three days. Producing the session was Johnny Winter and engineering the sessions was Dave Still – who previously engineered Johnny's brother Edgar, Foghat, and Alan Merrill. For the recordings Muddy used his then current touring band of guitarist Bob Margolin, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. Other backing members during the sessions were harmonicist James Cotton, who performed with Muddy at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960, and bassist Charles Calmese, who performed with both Johnny Winter and James Cotton in the past.

Three of the songs on the album – "Mannish Boy", "I Want to Be Loved", and "I Can't Be Satisfied" – were re-recordings of songs that were previously recorded for Chess Records. One of the songs recorded, "The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll, Pt. 2", was co-written by Brownie McGhee and another song, "Bus Driver", was co-written by T. Abrahamson.

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