Tiny Tim (born Herbert Khaury; April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996) was an American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist. He was most famous for his rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice. (More from Wikipedia)
If there is anyone more left-field than Tiny Tim, I don’t know who it might be. He is named of course after the crippled child at the heart of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This story, more than any other single thing, brought about modern Christmas celebrations worldwide (it had become a minor Christian holiday previously over the centuries).
Tiny Tim (real name: Herbert Khaury) was introduced to the world on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, an immensely popular comedic variety show in the 1960’s that (among other things) also introduced Goldie Hawn as a bikini-clad dancer decorated with painted graffiti. Tim was hardly tiny (he was both large and tall); and though he had long stringy hair, he really didn’t look like a hippie either.
As described in Wikipedia: “Co-host Dan Rowan announced that Laugh-In believed in showcasing new talent, and introduced Tiny Tim. The singer entered carrying a shopping bag, pulled his soprano ukulele from it, and sang a medley of ‘A Tisket A Tasket’ and ‘On the Good Ship Lollipop’ as an apparently dumbfounded co-host Dick Martin watched.” One of the show’s running gags from then on was Martin asking Rowan in consternation whenever he was about to introduce something new: “You’re not gonna bring back Tiny Tim, are you?”
Most people think that Tiny Tim played “Tiptoe through the Tulips” the first time he was on Laugh-In; but that was actually at his third, more elaborate presentation on the show, where he also used another of his trademark moves: throwing kisses at the audience. “Tiptoe through the Tulips” was, however, Tiny Tim’s hit song; sung in his distinctive falsetto and accompanying himself on his tiny ukulele, it charted as high as #17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tiny Tim continued to make periodic appearances on Laugh-In and later on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, where he became known for endearingly addressing the host as “Mr. Carson”. His shyness around women was a frequent topic of his interviews with Carson, and the wedding of Tiny Tim with Victoria Mae Budinger (known as “Miss Vicki”) on the Tonight Show was viewed by 21.4 million viewers, one of the largest American television audiences for many years, particularly in late night.
I saw Tiny Tim once in a while in later years, but he seemed a little dissipated and had put on weight. It was also sad to see that he had lost that seemingly permanent twinkle in his eye – the marriage didn’t work out for one thing, though they did have one daughter, who naturally was named Tulip (married name: Tulip Victoria Khaury Stewart).
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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).
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On the other hand, most people think of Tiny Tim as being just a joke; and however he might appear to the outside world, that is not truly the case. He was a serious student of early American music (mostly from the 1890’s to the 1930’s); and though his performances of both classic and contemporary songs were often bizarre, they were always earnest. His albums were remarkably good; Allmusic gives his debut album, God Bless Tiny Tim four stars, and it features his takes on several classic tunes, some corny ghost stories, and other fun stuff. On his follow-up album, Tiny Tim’s Second Album, Tiny Tim posed with his parents; and his third album, For All My Little Friends (a collection of children’s songs), was nominated for a Grammy.
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If anything, Leon Redbone had an even more stylized appearance than Tiny Tim; and he became known for his performances of old songs like “Champagne Charlie”, “My Walking Stick” and “Shine On Harvest Moon” in a creaky voice while playing a guitar. Like Tiny Tim, Leon Redbone was also a frequent guest on the Tonight Show as well as Saturday Night Live.
(March 2013)
