Boll Weevil (song) the time was "Tossin' and Turnin'" by rock and roll singer Bobby Lewis, and Benton's song was not considered rock and roll by the magazine, "The Boll Weevil Song" holds the distinction of being the first number-one song on the "Billboard" Easy Listening chart. In the UK, the song reached a peak position of number 30 on the UK Singles Chart and remained in the Top 40 for eight weeks during the summer of 1961. The majority of the song's lyrics are spoken by Benton, as in when the farmer inquires, "Say, why'd you pick my farm?", to which the
Tossin' and Turnin' begins with Lewis singing "I couldn't sleep at all last night," and it appears this way on most oldies compilations. However, on some releases the song has a prelude, where Lewis sings "Baby...Baby...you did something to me," followed by a musical cue into the first verse. Lewis usually includes this prelude when he performs the song live. The personnel on the original hit recording included Ritchie Adams and Eric Gale on guitar, Bob Bushnell on bass, King Curtis on a tenor sax mouthpiece, Frank Haywood Henry on baritone sax, Paul Griffin on Piano, and Sticks Evans on drums. In 2008,