Album Art Flashback: Steve Martin and The Toot Uncommons

Image by Fritz Liess via Flickr

The year was 1978 and King Tut mania was sweeping the nation. My twin brother and I skipped school just to see the King Tut exhibit at the L.A. County Museum of Art. What we didn’t know was that a class from our high school had also made the trip and we ran into several faculty members the minute we walked through the entrance.

The exhibit was worth the risk of detention. The teachers even overlooked our skipping school for the event.

My interest in King Tut was rekindled this week with the airing of King Tut Unwrapped on the Discovery Channel. In addition to memories about the 1976 to 1979 exhibit, I remembered the song released by actor, comic, ann musician Steve Martin.

King Tut by Steve Martin and The Toot Uncommons became a huge hit after Martin performed the song on Saturday Night Live. The Toot Uncommons were actually members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The single reached #17 on the Billboard chart.

The single was recently released by Rhino Records as a Digital 45. Like many Digital 45s, the artwork that comes with the MP3s is substandard. I have created a better image using other examples found online.