Released in the summer of 1965, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” was the first Top 10 crossover hit for James Brown. In the song, Papa’s new “bag”–his new motivation or interest–involved him getting his groove back on the dance floor. The title could also double as a reference to the new direction Brown’s music was taking, moving away from the slow doo-wop ballads he created with the Famous Flames in favor of his signature uptempo funky soul jams he performed at his live shows with his backing band, The James Brown Orchestra.

Brown created this track while he was in the middle of a contract dispute with King Records over finances and artistic control. Once his contract was re-negotiated, Brown brought “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” to the label for release. King Records engineer Ron Lenhoff described the editing process for the song:

Most of the time, working with James Brown, it would be down to the first complete cut. He’d say to me, ‘Ron, are you ready?’ and if I said, ‘Yes,’ he would cut it. After that, if he got all the way through it without stopping, I’d better have it on tape. […] That mono recording was terrible. It was so muddy, you could hardly hear all the instruments. It took me two days of copying, recopying, increasing the tempo, raising the pitch, editing, EQ'ing and editing again just to brighten it up.

While the song was edited down into two 2-minute parts for the single release, a 7-minute version later surfaced on Brown’s Star Time box set, which featured an intro from Brown proclaiming: “This is a hit!” This proclamation was realized when the single peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, topped the R&B chart for eight weeks, and won a Grammy Award in 1966 for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording. The song is featured on several “best of” lists, including a rank of #71 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, #15 on Mojo magazine’s list of the 100 Records That Changed the World, and #2 on Blues & Soul’s list of the 40 Essential Soul Singles. The song was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

The song has been covered by several artists, including Otis Redding and Roger Troutman. It has also been sampled by several hip-hop artists such as Kool Moe Dee, Salt-N-Pepa, and The Pharcyde.