Tiny Tim

Singer and entertainer Tiny Tim – born Herbert Khaury in New York City on April 12, 1932 – was best known for his eccentric personality and look, his falsetto voice and ukelele, and his 1968 cover version of the 1929 classic “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” He began performing publicly in the 1950s, performing under various names including Texarkana Tex, Emmett Swink, Vernon Castle, Judas K Foxglove, Dary Dover, Sir Timothy Timms, and Larry Love, the Singing Canary. While his demeanor, dress sense, and voice made most people consider him a novelty act, he was a lover of music from the 1920s and he chose to bring that music back into the ‘swinging ‘60s’ in his own unique way. Finally settling on the name Tiny Tim, he became a regular performer in clubs in New York City before he began making appearances on television. His first high-profile TV appearance is when he was introduced to a nationwide audience on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. His popularity earned him a record deal with Reprise Records, and he issued the album God Bless Tiny Tim in 1968. The album featured the Top 20 hit “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” which ended up being his only major hit. His sophomore release, Tiny Tim’s 2nd Album, was also released in 1968. Surprisingly, his third album, For All My Little Friends, was a children’s album and earned a Grammy Award nomination. Tiny Tim made many more guest appearances on TV, including marrying Miss Vickie on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on December 17, 1969. However, his ‘novelty’ appeal wore off and he struggled to hang on to his success. Although he continued to perform live and perform music from the 1920s and 1930s, some industry folks never understood his intentions and, instead, turned him further towards novelty music and had him perform ‘current’ songs including Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”. By the 1990s, Tiny Tim was still performing and was slowly rebuilding his audience, who fully understood that he was eccentric but dedicated to the music he had continued to preserve for many decades. On September 28, 1996, he suffered a heart attack and spent three weeks in the hospital. Although he was advised to stop performing and to focus on his health, he ignored the warnings. On November 30, 1996, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack while performing his last song, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” and died a short time after leaving the stage. He was 64 years old.