This popular composition is usually credited to Texas fiddler Luke Thomasson, although it has been published that Luke's son Benny (a famous Texas-style fiddler who popularized the melody) long remembered the night he heard both his father and uncle composing the tune on the family porch (c. 1900?). Several sources have noted this tune's resemblance to an Oklahoma-collected tune called "Old Paint," and there is an ongoing debate about whether "Midnight" is derivative of "Paint" (or vice versa).