Nefertiti (formerly known as "Egyptian Wife") is a formerly unidentified Indie pop song by London-based band Two Big Boys, released in 1987 as a single along with another song titled Monkeys. The lyrics were written by Ron Meerbeek and the music was written by Vicki Bonet (aka Stella Venucci).
Song Background
"Nefertiti" is the A-side to the single Monkeys/Nefertiti by the British band Two Big Boys. It was released in 1987 on 7" vinyl on the Bedrock/Big Boys label. Ron Meerbeek wrote the lyrics for Nefertiti while Stella Venucci was the lead singer, played the bass, and wrote the music. The song also had a music video. Meerbeek provided backing vocals. A snippet of the A-side Monkeys was uploaded to YouTube in 2009 along with its music video. Many years later, an unknown collector found the record and tried to sell it online.
Search History
2010s-2020s
On January 3th, 2013, user Redoalfo uploaded a snippet of Nefertiti onto YouTube. He got it from an unnamed collector who was trying to sell the record. The collector posted the 1:09 sped up snippet but did not provide the name of the song. Because of this, the clip circulated across the internet with many, including redo, trying to identify it.
At the same time, Analoge-Mechanik, the admin for the New Wave Outpost forum (where On The Roof gained popularity) began to look for it. For some unknown reason, he stopped looking for it.
At some unknown time, Gabriel Vieira, the one who made The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet famous, also tried to start a search for Egyptian Wife on Reddit, but it most likely failed.
In 2019, redoalfo's channel gained popularity when it was revealed that he had posted TMS in 2011. He had two other songs, one of which was Nefertiti and the other which was identified as Dizzy by The Flying Lizards. This restarted the search and from summer 2019-summer 2020 the search gradually became popular.
In October of 2019, C. W. Schultz ranked "Egyptian Wife" as the third most mysterious song on his "Top 10 Mysterious Songs" video.
At some point, an unnamed New Wave Outpost member was able to identify the song and bought the record. On August 4th, 2020, he revealed this to the Lostwave community.
Later that day, Nico Zúñiga of Dead Wax Records commented on C. W. Schultz's "Top 10 Mysterious Songs" video that he had the record somewhere in his collection.
Solving The Song
In May of 2020, a YouTube user newdarkfades posted the full song at the correct speed with its name and artist to his channel.
On August 27th, 2020, Zúñiga found the record in his collection and revealed the name. After searching the name, the newdarkfades video was found and the mystery was solved.
Later that day, he posted his own remastered version to YouTube. The snippet music video for "Monkeys" posted in 2009 was found as well by searching Two Big Boys on YouTube. It was then revealed that Nefertiti and Monkeys were on the same single.
Solving the song quickly got the attention band, represented by Vicki Bonet. She commented on the newly created Discogs page the information about the song. Zúñiga also got in touch with Ron Meerbeek about selling the Monkeys/Nefertiti, as he had 100 records to sell to people in the community.
Ever since the song was solved, Two Big Boys became active on social media such as Instagram and YouTube. They also created a new music video from clips of old movies. The social media presence took a hit when Meerbeek passed away on December 3rd, 2020. Two Big Boys uploaded the original unofficial Nefertiti music video in response to his passing.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
There she goes, looking back at you-you
There she goes in an Egyptian frou-frou
I don't think she's after a taxi
I don't think you're gonna see her again
There she goes, out of his life
Say goodbye to your Egyptian wife
I don't think she'll try it again
I don't think you're gonna see her again
[Hook]
Ooh, I met her as a kid
Outside her pyramid
There she goes with a smile
Floating down the Nile
[Verse 2]
Next time you see her she'll be on the TV
Say to yourself "She's my little Nefertiti"
You say, "I knew her long ago
Now she is on a TV show"
She's an Egyptian princess
She met you and left you in a pretty white dress
She won't return your phone call
She doesn't wanna see you at all
[Hook]
Ooh, I met her as a kid
Outside her pyramid
There she goes with a smile
Floating down the Nile
Two Big Boys
Two Big Boys were an indie pop band from London which were active from 1984 to 1989. They are known for being the band behind Nefertiti (formerly Egyptian Wife).
Band members
- Ron Meerbeek (*07/1959; †12/03/2020): vocals, art direction, lyrics.
- "Baxter" Martin Wilson (*?; †1990): tenor sax, clarinet.
- "Harry Day" Jeffrey Hildreth (*?; †early 1990s): guitar, bass.
- "Stella Venucci" Vicki Bonet (*?): vocals, bass, lyrics.
- Nick Biddle, Michael Gallagher, Lisa from Sheffield, Liza Dawson Whisker.
Vicki Bonet circa 1980.
Vicki Bonet, also known as Stella Venucci, is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter. She is a part of indie pop group Two Big Boys. Bonet is notable for writing the music as well as performing the vocals and bass on the former unknown song Nefertiti.
Bonet was very good friends with Ron Meerbeek, having been in Two Big Boys with Meerbeek from the beginning.