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Fact #82377

When:

Short story:

Tossin' And Turnin' by Bobby Lewis enters the Billboard Singles Chart in the USA. It will peak at No1.

Full article:

Bobby Lewis : One time I was workin' at The Apollo with a group called The Fireflies and we were on the same (dressing room) floor. About three-weeks later I walked into Beltone Records - after knocking on 150 to 200 doors! - and the (Fireflies') guitar player, Richie Adams, had become the company songwriter.

I played on the piano some of the things I had written, he reached into his case and said "What do you think of this?" - Tossin' And Turnin'. "Wow! I like the title!"

I'm there with about 35 cents in my pocket and he asks me if I want to record! Their studio was a small little thing down the basement of a hotel on 31st, 32nd Street, near Macy's, right off Broadway.

I remember the guitar player was a good friend of mine who I'd worked with at a club in Memphis, Calvin Newborn. When I first worked with him he was playin' strictly blues. They would ask me was there anyone special I wanted to put on the session. A lot of guys, I didn't know where they are, so as luck would have it I run into Calvin and offered him the gig. We had a good bass player named Bob (Bushnell?).

I said to the A + R man, 'When you make the arrangement, don't come into the studio with it in ink, [allowing] no discussion, no changes', as though 'What I have to say is not negotiable'. I resented that, but struggling to earn a living, you gotta' keep going.

It started selling and deejays heard it and programme directors, but it had a slow intro before the beat started, and the people at King Records who pressed and distributed the record cut that first part off and just left 'I couldn't sleep at all last night...'

The sales were slow but they never dropped so after about two-and-a-half months, and I'm going around doing record hops for different deeiays and sock hops promoting the record - I went on American Bandstand. I wondered what can I do to sell this song? I 'm a visual act, so when it came to 'jumped outta' bed... jumped back into bed' I hit the floor as though I'm jumpin' into bed, and I'd jump off the floor and make a spin in time with the music. And do the clock with my arms for the clock striking, and the kids went crazy.

Dick Clark went crazy. He says, "Do it again!" I'm half outta breath but I said, "I'll do her!" I'm amazed! All I expected was a little airplay so I can get some more nightclub work! When I hit No.1 I was walkin' on air. Dick Clark immediately insisted I go on his roadshow.

I was so used to it I knew what to expect. Down South there were some problems. During those days, most of the male black acts would straighten their hair, but in order to keep the (finger) waves, they'd wear silk scarves. One day we pulled into this filling station to get some soft drinks and a sandwich before we'd go on. And we black guys piled out of the bus, and these scarves on our heads, and they wasn't used to seeing all these black guys with scarves on their heads. They wondered what we were - some kinda' gang? - and the guy called the sheriff, but Dick Clark pulled him off to the side and explained and everything was alright.

I stayed in New York at a hotel. Even when I recorded Tossin' And Turnin', I was in this hotel and, when I became a hit, I went and got my wife at that time. When I got the first $3000 from Beltone, I rented a U-haul and went to Detroit and brought the kids and my wife here to New York. We moved out to a house on Long Island until the pressure got too great and the gigs got too slow and I went back to the hotel.

It was kinda' hard to find another record to top Tossin' And Turnin'. Matter of fact, it was virtually im- possible. One Track Mind went to No9, What A Walk went to 26 or something like that, another went to the lower forties. Beltone would choose the material and ask me if I liked it or not, and I made one album. But they wouldn't take my advice about the arrangements. They would never let me have an open mike [using] the excuse that my voice was so strong.

Beltone wouldn't give me my royalties. Every three months I would go up and ask for my royalties and they would have some excuse. They'd give me one time 1500 dollars, another 3000 dollars, but not much more than that. By the time the contract expired, they didn't do as many tunes as the contract called for, so I'm not gonna' stay with them.
(Source : not known)