Nick Lucas (born Dominic Nicholas Anthony Lucanese; August 22, 1897–July 28, 1982) was an American singer and pioneer jazz guitarist, remembered as “the grandfather of the jazz guitar”, whose peak of popularity lasted from the mid-1920’s to the early 1930’s. (More from Wikipedia)
In Tiny Tim’s version, “Tiptoe through the Tulips” came off as a novelty song, but that is certainly not how the song started out. Written by Al Dubin and Joe Burke, “Tiptoe through the Tulips with Me” was a featured song in an historic film in 1929, Gold Diggers of Broadway and became a #1 hit recording by one of the film’s stars, the “crooning troubadour” and guitarist Nick Lucas later that year. Only the second all-color “talkie” film (and using an early version of the Technicolor process), it quickly became the best-selling film of all time that year, a record that it held for 10 years until eclipsed by (you guessed it) Gone with the Wind. (Sadly, Gold Diggers of Broadway is now a partially lost film; the loose remake, Gold Diggers of 1933 is better known these days).
(March 2013)
