Sweet Home Chicago is a blues standard first recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936 and released as a single in August 1937 on the Vocalion label. The track, about 2 minutes and 59 seconds long, was recorded November 23, 1936 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. Johnson’s version blends a driving 12‑bar blues rhythm with a high, almost falsetto vocal and a boogie‑style guitar accompaniment, drawing on earlier tunes like Kokomo Blues and Honeydripper Blues. The lyrics pivot from Kokomo to a migration‑dream of Chicago and California, turning Chicago into a symbolic destination of opportunity during the Great Migration. Although released as a single, the song has since become a blues standard performed in many styles and has been collected on Robert Johnson compilation albums such as The Complete Recordings. The tune has influenced numerous artists, appeared in The Blues Brothers film, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
