In 1978, if you weren’t out on a Saturday night, you were more than likely at home watching Saturday Night Live–the 43-year old TV mainstay has never been more popular than it was during the last two seasons of the 1970s.
So on Saturday night, April 22nd, it’s quite possible that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were watching SNL when Steve Martin debuted his instant classic, “King Tut.”
The song became an instant hit. In those pre-Internet, pre-VCR days (the VCR had come out the year prior, but not many people had one yet), the only way to go viral was literal word of mouth–which is exactly what happened.
Martin released the song as a single shortly after the sensational (and controversial) SNL production, and it became the novelty song of the summer, peaking at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song first started getting some serious airplay in mid-May–exactly when Bruce and the boys were rehearsing for their upcoming Darkness Tour at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park.
That may explain why in between “Paradise by the ‘C’” and “Badlands,” Bruce led the band in a brief cover of the song that had everyone talking that summer.
That rehearsal performance remains the only time Bruce is known to have covered “King Tut” — somehow, it never made it to the Darkness Tour setlist. Go figure.
King Tut
First performed: May 19, 1978 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: May 19, 1978 (Asbury Park, NJ)
