| Spider in My Stew | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Buster Benton |
| Recorded: | 1970 |
| Genre: | Blues |
| Length: | 3:25 |
| Label: | Supreme |
| Producer: | Soul Productions |
"Spider in My Stew" is a song composed by Willie Dixon and first recorded by American blues musician Buster Benton. It is performed as a slow, minor-key blues, with Benton's impassioned vocal and B. B. King-influenced electric guitar playing.[1] For the recording, Benton, on vocal and guitar, is joined by blues veterans Dixon on bass, Carey Bell on harmonica, Mighty Joe Young on guitar, and Billy Davenport on drums.[2]
In 1970, the small Supreme Records label released the song on a single,[3] with "Dangerous Woman" on the flip side (no A-side/B-side designations). When the Shreveport, Louisiana, Jewel Records released it again in 1974, it still failed to reach the Billboard charts,[4] but it "gave Benton a taste of fame," according to biographer Bill Dahl.[1]
The song was used as the title track for the well-regarded 1979 Benton album on Jewel subsidiary Ronn Records, Spider in My Stew;[5] however, as the music journalist Tony Russell commented, Benton "never found another money spider."[6] As Benton's best-known song, it is included on several anthology albums of Benton's music and various artists' compilations.[7]