The phrase traces back at least as far as Blind Lemon Jefferson. His verse

Well, I wonder will a matchbox hold my clothes? (x2)
I ain't got so many, but I got so far to go.

appeared in his "Match Box Blues," Okeh 8455, recorded in Chicago March 14 1926 and subsequently one of his most popular and well known blues, selling well all through the late twenties.

White singers picked it up and spread it far and wide. It's one of the classic phrases of the blues.

Bob