"Mean Old World" is a blues song recorded by T-Bone Walker

T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...

 in 1942. It has been described (along with the single's B-side) as "the first important blues recordings on the electric guitar". Over the years it has been interpreted and recorded by numerous blues and other artists.

Original song

T-Bone Walker began performing "Mean Old World" when he was with Les Hite

Les Hite

Les Hite was an American jazz bandleader.Hite attended the University of Illinois and played saxophone with family members in a band in the 1920s. Following this, he played with Detroit Shannon and then the Helen Dewey Show, but when this group disbanded abruptly, Hite relocated to Los Angeles...

 and His Orchestra from 1939 to 1940. After leaving Hite's band, Walker continued to develop and refine his style on the Los Angeles club circuit. In 1942, he recorded "Mean Old World" for Capitol Records

Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

. The song was performed in the West Coast blues

West Coast blues

The West Coast blues is a type of blues music characterized by jazz and jump blues influences, strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players relocated to California in the 1940s...

 style, with a small combo of Freddie Slack

Freddie Slack

Frederick Charles Slack was an American swing and boogie-woogie pianist and bandleader.He played with the Jimmy Dorsey Band in the 1930s and was a charter member of the Will Bradley Orchestra when it formed in 1939...

 (piano), Jud DeNaut (bass), and Dave Coleman (drums) accompanying Walker (vocal and guitar). "Mean Old World" "showcased T-Bones's new, and already developed, style, in which he answered his smoky, soulful vocal phrases with deft, stinging, jazz-inflected lead lines on his electric guitar".

Because of a recording ban, T-Bone Walker did not record again until 1945, when a second version of "Mean Old World" was completed for the Rhumboogie label. This version, titled "Mean Old World Blues", did not feature Walker's guitar as prominently (the backing Marl Young's Orchestra had a five-piece horn section) and some new lyrics were substituted. However, the opening verses remained the same:

This is a mean old world, baby to live in by yourself

This is a mean old world, babe to live in by yourself

When you can't get the woman you love, you know she's loving someone else

This anticipated future versions, in which new lyrics would be added to the familiar opening lines.

Little Walter version

In October 1952, Little Walter

Little Walter

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...

 recorded his version of "Mean Old World" (Checker 764). It was recast as a Chicago blues, with Walter's amplified harmonica prominently featured and several new lyrics substituted. The song was a hit, reaching #6 on the Billboard R&B chart, where it remained for six weeks in 1953. Backing Little Walter are The Aces

The Aces (blues band)

The Aces was one of the earliest and most influential of the electric Chicago blues band in the 1950s. Led by the guitarist brothers Louis and Dave Myers, natives of Byhalia, Mississippi, the brothers originally performed under the name The Little Boys; with the subsequent addition of harmonica...

 (guitarists Louis and Dave Myers and drummer Fred Below

Fred Below

Fred Below was a leading blues drummer, best known for his innovative work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. Nobody laid more of the Chicago blues rhythmic foundations, particularly its archetypal backbeat, than Fred Below.-Career:He was born in Chicago, and started playing drums...

). T-Bone Walker's Capitol version was released before Billboard magazine or a similar service began tracking such releases, so it is difficult to gauge which version was more popular. Little Walter received the sole credit for his recording.

Other versions

Many blues and other artists have recorded "Mean Old World", including Walter Brown

Walter Brown (singer)

Walter Brown was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues"....

 (1947 single); Snooks Eaglin

Snooks Eaglin

Snooks Eaglin, born Fird Eaglin, Jr. , was a New Orleans-based guitarist and singer. He was also referred to as Blind Snooks Eaglin in his early years....

 (from his 1959 album New Orleans Street Singer); Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke

Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...

 (1963 Night Beat

Night Beat

Night Beat is an album by Sam Cooke, released in 1963 on RCA Records. The album is often considered one of Cooke's best, and also one of the best R&B albums of the period. Billy Preston, the organ player of the album, was just 16 years old at the time of recording...

); James Cotton

James Cotton

James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...

 (1967 Late Night Blues); Chicken Shack

Chicken Shack

Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb , Andy Silvester , and Alan Morley , who were later joined by Christine Perfect in 1968.-Career:...

 (1969 O.K. Ken?); Ike & Tina Turner

Ike & Tina Turner

Ike & Tina Turner were an American rock & roll and soul duo, made of the husband-and-wife team of Ike Turner and Tina Turner in the 1960s and 1970s. Spanning sixteen years together as a recording group, the duo's repertoire included rock & roll, soul, blues and funk...

 (1969 Outta Season); Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 & Duane Allman

Duane Allman

Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...

 (1970 Crossroads); Bobby Bland

Bobby Bland

Robert Calvin Bland better known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of the Beale Streeters, and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues"...

 & B.B. King (1976 Bobby Bland and B. B. King Together Again...Live); Otis Rush

Otis Rush

Otis Rush is a blues musician, singer and guitarist. His distinctive guitar style features a slow burning sound and long bent notes...

 (1976 Cold Day in Hell); Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

 (1972 The London Chuck Berry Sessions

The London Chuck Berry Sessions

The London Chuck Berry Sessions is a studio/live album by American rock and roll icon Chuck Berry released by Chess Records in October 1972. Side one of the album consisted of studio recordings, while side two featured three extended live performances recorded at the Lanchester Arts Festival in...

); George "Mojo" Buford

George "Mojo" Buford

George "Mojo" Buford was an American blues harmonica player, best known for his work in Muddy Waters' band.-Biography:...

 (1979 Mojo Buford's Blues Summit); Luther Tucker

Luther Tucker

For the publisher see The Genesee FarmerLuther Tucker was an American blues guitarist.While soft spoken and shy, Tucker made his presence known through his unique and clearly recognizable guitar style. Tucker helped to define the music known as Chicago Blues, but played everything from blues to...

 (1990 Sad Hours); Lowell Fulson

Lowell Fulson

Lowell Fulson was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom...

 (1997 Blue Shadows); and Willie Cobbs

Willie Cobbs

Willie Cobbs is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known for his song, "You Don't Love Me"....

(2000 Jukin).