The 1978 debut single by the Go-Betweens on one side featured a tribute to a Hollywood actress who Robert Forster had a crush on, while the other side was a tribute to a University librarian who Robert Forster had a crush on.
I’ve a couple of cover versions of Lee Remick, one of which is quite quirky, while the other is quite rocky:-
mp3: The King Of Luxembourg – Lee Remick
mp3: The Wannadies – Lee Remick
I was actually quite disappointed by The Wannadies take on things, reckoning it’s a tad perfunctory and not representative of their own highly enjoyable Scandi-pop output.
I’m quite smitten by The King Of Luxembourg‘s take on things, somehow managing to even more camp, silly and enjoyable than the original. I ‘discovered’ it thanks to it being included on the Scared To Get Happy : A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989 boxset that was issued a few years back by Cherry Red Records. Here’s what the accompanying booklet had to say:-
The King of Luxembourg was an alter ego for Simon Fisher Turner, an actor who’d also tasted fame as a teenage glam-era pop star on Jonathan King’s UK label. As The King of Luxembourg (and dressed accordingly), he covered The Monkees’ ‘Vallen’ on el in 1986. Debut album ‘Royal Bastard’ boasted more covers : The Television Personalities ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’, PiL’s ‘Poptones’ and The Castaways’ ‘Liar Liar’.
Simon’s quirky rendition of the Go-Betweens classic graced a maxi-EP of ‘Dorian Gray’. By contrast, he recorded the soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s film ‘Caravaggio’ under his own name.
The King of Luxembourg monicker was dropped after the second LP, ‘Sir’ (1987). He’s since recorded classical and electronic music for many labels, including Creation and Mute.
So, there you have it. And unless anyone wants to offer up a guest posting, this will be the debut and last appearance by The King of Luxembourg on this blog.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
As soon as I saw the post title, I smiled. I love The Go-Betweens song so, like you, I was a bit disappointed by The Wannadies cover when I first got it. I hadn’t heard The King Of Luxembourg version before but it’s a lot of fun. I’ve only got one other KoL song – the aforementioned Television Personalities cover, which is equally quirky. His solo/soundtrack work is worth checking out, particularly his (I think) sole album for Creation called Simon Turner, which features Barry Andrews from Shriekback and actor Tilda Swinton.