It is truly one of my favourite BB songs. I remember reading somewhere - no idea where, sorry - that it is heavily influenced by Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man, which was covered by Mongo Santamaria and became a major hit. So perhaps the record company chose not to release a single for fear of a repeat of the Surfin Safari/Chuck Berry thing? I have no idea.
Man, before 5 minutes ago I was only aware of the Herbie's
Headhunters version of 'Watermelon Man', which was released in '73, so I had to look it up. For anyone interested in the '62 version that Marcella27 is referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbHJHPTikQAVery well worth the listen if you like jazz, thanks for bringing it up Marcella! And I can definitely see some similarity.