Well, this is a bit more like it. While Gary U.S. Bonds ducked out just before last call, Bobby Lewis keeps going all night. But unlike the offhand jive of “Quarter to Three,” each sax blast and vocal doot-doot-doot in “Tossin’ and Turnin'” underpins the manic restlessness. This may well be the most aggressively upbeat song about insomnia ever. The languid, ghostly tones of “Sleep Walk” are traded for wails and blares: the brass section, the rock gospel back-up, the wah-wah foghorn of Lewis’s voice. Before he can even finish bellowing the opening line (“I couldn’t sleep at all last night!”), the music is off and running. Lewis never really planned to sleep tonight, anyway, and why should he? Sleep is for people who don’t have anything interesting enough to keep them up at night. 7
Hit #1 on July 10, 1961; total of 7 weeks at #1
55 of 969 #1’s reviewed; 5.68% through the Hot 100
No Hard Chords 