Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox cover ‘The Best’ in ‘Sunday Lunch’ return
Revered duo Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox have returned for a new episode of their coveted Sunday Lunch series with a cover of Tina Turner hit ‘The Best’.
Fripp and Wilcox, who have been married since 1986, started Sunday Lunch during lockdown in 2020 to boost energy and morale during a time of greater restriction for people across the globe. Since then, they have covered countless musicians, typically with Fripp on guitar and Wilcox on vocals.
In the latest video, the pair deliver their signature high-energy atmosphere, breaking out into a lively rendition with Wilcox exclaiming the well-known chorus: “Simply the best!”
Over the past five years, Wilcox and Fripp have covered hits from David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, and Michael Jackson. Wilcox explained why they created the series with The Guardian in 2021 and how she became inspired to help her husband out of a slump.
“Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without. He was withdrawing, so I thought: ‘I’m going to teach him to dance’. And it became a challenge,” she revealed. Although Fripp enjoys doing the videos, he also said Wilcox brings the biggest creative drive.
“My wife insists performers have a responsibility to lift people’s spirits in hard times. Do I respect that? My answer is yes, completely and utterly I do,” he said. Addressing how some King Crimson fans regard the move as embarrassing, he added: “At age 76, why should I give a fuck? This is my life.”
The duo’s more recent covers included Blondie’s ‘One Way or Another’, Scorpions’ ‘Rock Me Like A Hurricane’, Amyl and the Sniffers’ ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’, and David Bowie’s ‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)’.
Fripp was featured on the original 1980 version on guitar, though his contributions later led to a legal battle after confusion around his accreditation. Despite actively contributing several guitar parts, he was not credited as a featured artist.
At the time, Fripp wrote on Facebook that the dispute concerns Bowie’s estate’s refusal to “acknowledge that contribution to the Heroes and Scary Monsters albums” and that Brian Eno, Tony Visconti, Bowie, and the Court of Public Opinion supported the request.
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