“Tiptoe Through the Tulips” or “Tip-toe Thru’ the Tulips with Me” is a popular song originally published in 1929. The song was written by Al Dubin (lyrics) and Joe Burke (music). The song was revived in 1967 by the California rock group The Humane Society and in 1968 by Tiny Tim, whose version charted at #17 that year. (More from Wikipedia)
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.
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)
