More than 90 years after Robert Johnson recorded “Come On in My Kitchen,” sound restorer Nick Del-low has uploaded a remarkably clearer “take one” test pressing to YouTube—resurfacing a version that wasn’t heard by the wider public until 1961.
Some recordings survive by reputation. Others survive by accident—by the fact that a test pressing escaped the usual erasures of time. In this case. it’s Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen. ” a track that has been shadowed for decades by a simple problem: the original recordings. made between 1936 and 1937 in less-than-ideal studio conditions even for the era. never quite delivered the sound you wish you could hear.
Now, sound restorer Nick Del-low has been uploading relatively crisp digitized “test pressings” of Johnson’s songs to YouTube. “Come On in My Kitchen” is among the latest examples: in the video. the track is labeled “take one. ” the version that Johnson also recorded as an earlier option before laying down a second take.
That second take matters because it’s the one his label, Vocalion Records, released in 1937. The reasoning, as the record-industry logic in the story goes, was practical: it possibly sounded less mournful and therefore more viable as a hit.
But “take one” didn’t enter public circulation in the way a released single would. Serious enthusiasts have tended to regard “take one” as the “true” rendition of the song. Still. the broader public wouldn’t hear it until 1961. when it appeared on the compilation King of the Delta Blues Singers—an album described here as having done more than any other release to win Johnson his posthumous fan base.
Even with the audio improved from the version on King of the Delta Blues Singers. it remains hard to imagine “Come On in My Kitchen” sweeping the dance halls the way a modern listener might picture a breakthrough track. The enduring question. then. isn’t whether Johnson could move a crowd—he did—and it isn’t simply the survival of better sound. What has kept his music alive is the blend of understated virtuosity and a kind of otherworldly reach into emotional territory that feels genuinely haunting.
For a musician who died at 27—some say because of a deal made at a crossroads—this new clarity doesn’t erase the legend. It sharpens the contradiction at the heart of it. Johnson recorded 29 songs before his time came, a small catalog that still became immortal through influence. And when releases surface decades later—never-before-heard takes and pressings—they don’t just add novelty. In figures who die young. they can reveal the “true edge” of immaturity; with Johnson. the effect deepens the myth rather than weakening it.
The video above gives you that edge in a form the original sessions couldn’t: the same song, marked “take one,” now able to meet listeners without the usual fog of age.
Robert Johnson Come On in My Kitchen Nick Dellow test pressing Blues Vocalion Records King of the Delta Blues Singers 1961 audio restoration YouTube