"Sugar Mama"
Song by Led Zeppelin
from the album Coda (Deluxe Edition)
Released	July 31, 2015 (2015-07-31)
Recorded	October 1968
Genre	Blues rock
Length	2:50
Songwriter(s)	Unknown
Producer(s)	Jimmy Page

"Sugar Mama" or "Sugar Mama Blues" is a song that is a standard of the blues. Called a "tautly powerful slow blues" by music journalist Charles Shaar Murray, it has been recorded by numerous artists, including early Chicago bluesmen Tampa Red, Sonny Boy Williamson I, and Tommy McClennan. John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf later adapted "Sugar Mama" for electric blues and rock group Led Zeppelin reworked it during early recording sessions.

Country bluesman Yank Rachell recorded "Sugar Farm Blues" February 6, 1934 (Melotone M12958, listed as "Poor Jim with Dan Jackson"). Sonny Boy Williamson I, with whom "Sugar Mama" is often associated, was an early collaborator of Rachell. "Themes that Yank Rachell recorded also turn up in the blues of [Sleepy John] Estes, [Sonny Boy] Williamson, and other artists from the [same] area, and it would be difficult to determine which artist actually created any particular theme".

Tampa Red recorded two different versions of "Sugar Mama Blues" in 1934, shortly after Rachell's "Sugar Farm Blues". Both are medium tempo twelve-bar blues that featured Red's trademark slide resonator guitar work and vocals. "Sugar Mama No. 1", recorded May 12, 1934, features the lyrics often found in subsequent versions of the song:

Sugar mama sugar mama, please come back to me (2×)
Bring my granulated sugar, and ease my misery

"Sugar Mama Blues No. 2", recorded March 23, 1934 (Vocalion 2753), has some different lyrics (although recorded first, it was released later, hence "No. 2").

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, sometimes identified as the composer of "Sugar Mama", first recorded the song three years after Tampa Red. The recording took place during his first session for Bluebird Records on May 5, 1937, that also produced "Good Morning, School Girl", which was used as the flip side for "Sugar Mama". Williamson's song uses most of the lyrics in Tamp Red's "Sugar Mama Blues No. 1" as well as the overall arrangement. However, his version features a harmonica solo with guitar accompaniment by Robert Lee McCoy, later known as Robert Nighthawk. Williamson later recorded several versions of "Sugar Mama Blues".

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Wikipedia