The song, before seeing success with recordings by Odetta and The Kingston Trio, was originally recorded by Calypso artist Sir Lancelot for the 1943 RKO film, "I Walked With a Zombie", directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton. The lyrics (left mostly unaltered in the Odetta recording) actually detail the plot of the film in which a nurse (Frances Dee) is called upon by a man named Holland (Tom Conway) to care for his ailing wife, who has turned into a zombie in the wake of a tropical fever. It later comes to light that the Zombie, Jessica, is thought to be cursed because of her engaging in an affair with Holland's brother, Rand (James Ellison).
In later versions, the lyrics were changed to detail the story of a man in search of his wife, making the lyrics into more of a comical piece and removing the dark overtones of the original.