"Worried Life Blues" is a blues standard and one of the most recorded blues songs of all time. Originally recorded by Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather in 1941, "Worried Life Blues" was an early blues hit and Maceo's most recognized song. An earlier song inspired it and several artists have had record chart successes with their interpretations of the song.

"Worried Life Blues" is based on "Someday Baby Blues" recorded by Sleepy John Estes in 1935. Estes' song is performed as a vocal and guitar country blues, whereas Maceo's is a prototypical Chicago blues. To illustrate the lyrical differences of the originals, the first few verses are as follows:

Oh lordy lord, oh lordy lord
It hurts me so bad, for us to part
But someday baby, I ain't gonna worry my life anymore

I don't care how long you go, I don't care how long you stay
But that good kind treatment, bring you back home someday
Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry my mind anymore

Over the years the differences have become blurred by various cover versions of the songs, which use elements from both songs, often combined with new lyrics and variations in the music.

Big Maceo recorded "Worried Life Blues" June 24, 1941, shortly after arriving in Chicago.Lester Melrose produced the song and it became Maceo's first single on Bluebird Records. The song is a moderate-tempo eight-bar blues, with Maceo on vocal and piano, accompanied by frequent collaborator, guitarist and fellow recording artist, Tampa Red and Ransom Knowling on bass. Music writer Keith Shadwick identifies it a major hit and blues historian Jim O'Neal notes that it "eclipsed the song ['Someday Baby'] that inspired it". Several other renditions soon followed, including those by Bill Gaither (1941), Sonny Boy Williams (1942), and Honeyboy Edwards (1942). In 1945, Maceo recorded a second version with additional lyrics, also accompanied by Tampa Red. Titled "Things Have Changed", it reached number four in the Billboard's Race Records chart.

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