Bubbling Under: Larry Lurex

Our image search for "lurex" brought up this photo of model Nicole Trunfio at a movie premiere earlier this year, and we forgot why we were searching. And we hate ourselves because we had to crop the best part. (Getty Images for Relativity Media/Larry Busacca)

Robin Geoffrey Cable was a sound engineer at Trident Studios in London in 1972. He was fascinated by Phil Spector‘s “wall of sound” records made a decade before, and wondered if he could recreate that sound. He chose a couple of likely songs for his experiment, and then set about rounding up some musicians. He didn’t have to go far to find them.

Elsewhere at Trident, an unknown band was working on its first album. There’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait in the recording process, and the members of the band found themselves with time to kill one night. Cable had heard the group’s lead singer and thought he was right for the project; the lead singer brought along the band’s drummer and guitarist. So Cable and his makeshift band cut the Beach Boys‘ hit “I Can Hear Music” and “Goin’ Back,” which had been recorded by Dusty Springfield. The two songs were released on a single under the name Larry Lurex.

Did we mention that the unknown musicians Cable used were Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, and Brian May, and that the unknown band working next door at Trident was Queen?

Mercury’s not particularly recognizable on “I Can Hear Music.” He’s easier to pick out on “Goin’ Back.”

“I Can Hear Music.” bubbled under the American charts for three weeks in the fall of 1973. Both songs can be found on the 2006 Freddie Mercury solo compilation Lover of Life, Singer of Songs.

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