There was a period in the late 1970s when it seemed like everyone was fascinated by all things Egyptian — especially anything related to King Tut. The long-gone ‘boy pharaoh’ Tutankhamun was by most reports a fairly minor figure in Egyptian history but as one of the few whose artifacts survived the attention of grave-robbers, his name had already become a familiar one. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a three-year exhibit of his trinkets in 1976, King Tut became a sensation.
Meanwhile, comedian Steve Martin was building his fame with regular appearances on TV’s Saturday Night Live, and it wasn’t too much later that he wrote and performed his hilarious “king Tut” in a fully-costumed sketch on the show. (You can see a video of the performance HERE.)
He eventually issued a record of the song, backed by a group he called the Toot Uncommons (rumored to be the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). That record would become a million-seller for Martin, but it wasn’t the biggest hit among musical connections to the Egyptian craze. A few years later an all-girl group called the Bangles hit the top of the charts with “Walk Like An Egyptian.”
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teve Martin – “King Tut”
Geezer Music Club 