Artist:Tiny Tim
Song:Tiptoe Thru the Tulips with Me
Album:Buried Treasure: Lost Gems from Deep in the 60s Vaults
If you were around in the late 60s, you should remember this unavoidable top twenty hit by Herbert "Tiny Tim" Khaury, his ukulele and his falsetto singing voice. I don't mind novelty records. But I didn't like this. I was listening to Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis at the time. I thought this was a joke. But was Khaury in on the joke? He was born Apr. 12, 1932 in New York City. His parents were textile workers. His mother was from Poland and his father was from Lebanon. He was five years old when his father gave him a wind up gramophone and Henry Burr's 1915 recording of Beautiful Ohio. I'm sure he drove his parents nuts with that recording. Then he taught himself to play guitar. As a teen, he spent a lot of time at public library reading about the early days of the music business. After his appendix was removed in 1945, Khaury dropped out of school and listening to Rudy Vallee made him think he could sing in a high register. He also taught himself to play the ukulele. While working as a messenger at MGM's New York office, he started entering talent shows and that's when he grew his hair long and wore makeup. His mother was going to send him to a psychiatrist but his dad put a stop to that. He started performing as Larry Love, the Singing Canary in Times Square. He got a manager who got him paid gigs. He used various names until one night he followed a midget on a show and his manager gave him the name Tiny Tim. Khaury made some film and TV appearances. But the key one was the 1968 flower power documentary You Are What You Eat. And that got him a booking on NBC's popular comedy variety show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Co-host Dan Rowan announced that they were showcasing new talent. Khaury arrived with his ukulele in a shopping bag. Obviously the whole thing was a gag. But after a couple more appearances on Laugh-In, Khaury got a record deal with Warner Bros.' Reprise label. They assigned him to house producer Richard Perry and he produced the 1968 album God Bless Tiny Tim. This was Perry's first album. But he would go on to great success in the 70s producing Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson among other things. Artie Butler was the arranger. Khaury recorded what he liked which was Tin Pan Alley standards like Tiptoe Thru' the Tulips. That song was written by Al Dubin and Joe Burke for the 1929 film Gold Diggers of Broadway. "Crooning Troubadour" Nick Lucas topped the charts for ten weeks after singing it in the film. It was a forgotten song when Khaury recorded it. It reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and God Bless Tiny Tim reached #7 on the Billboard 200. The record was a hit because Khaury performed the song on Laugh-In. Remember the whole thing was supposed to be a gag. But Khaury taking it seriously is what made it work. After a couple of his singles charted, the highlight of Khaury's run was when he got married on The Tonight Show in front of a viewing audience of forty million. He faded after that like most novelty acts. But he continued to perform and occasionally record until he suffered a heart attack during a performance in Minneapolis and died on Nov. 30, 1996 at age 64. You can get Tiptoe Thru' the Tulips on this 2CD various artists comp from Collector's Choice. This is the original recording. Beware of knock off versions. Here's Tiny Tim performing Tiptoe Thru' the Tulips on the German TV show Beat-Club 1968.
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