![]() ![]() Striking while the iron was hot, Tim recorded a follow-up, Tiny Tim's Second Album, which was released in 1969 so was its follow-up, an album of children's songs titled For All My Little Friends. His signature rendition of "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips" became a hit, and the LP sold over 200,000 copies. A hot commodity, Tim signed a record deal with Reprise and issued his debut album, God Bless Tiny Tim, in 1968. His eccentric personality became as well-known as his music: he was obsessed with bodily cleanliness, and his distaste for sex seemed logical when paired with his gentle, asexual demeanor. ![]() He appeared several more times on Laugh-In, and became a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, also performing on the Ed Sullivan and Jackie Gleason variety shows. ![]() He was an instant sensation whether or not he was seen as an object of ridicule, no one had ever seen anything like him. Tim's appearance in the film You Are What You Eat led to a booking on the hugely popular comedy series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. He finally settled on the name Tiny Tim after the character in Dickens' A Christmas Carol (according to some accounts, it was suggested by a manager accustomed to working with midgets). By the early '60s, he had gained a cult following around the thriving Greenwich Village music scene, particularly after he began to incorporate bizarre renditions of contemporary songs into his repertoire. Khaury performed at small clubs, parties, and talent shows under a variety of names his parents tried to discourage him at first, but relented when they saw that not every gig ended in ridicule. His first performances - under the alias Larry Love - took place in the early '50s, and according to legend, he debuted at a lesbian cabaret in Greenwich Village called the, where he became a regular. His interest in American popular music (chiefly from the 1890s to the 1930s) began at a young age, as did his desire to be a singer, and accordingly he learned guitar and ukulele. The son of a Lebanese father and Jewish mother, he grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, and was (unsurprisingly) a misfit and loner, eventually dropping out of high school. ![]() Tiny Tim was born Herbert Khaury, and gave his birth date as April 12, 1933, although most sources list 1932 (and some list 1930, and even 1926). Tiny Tim's initial novelty wore off with the public after a couple of years, but he was so genuinely, guilelessly eccentric that he was never really forgotten, remaining something of a pop-culture icon for decades to come. And, although he was best-known for his falsetto, Tim was also a creditable baritone crooner in the pre- Bing Crosby mold, which allowed him to sing duets with himself. Pegged as strictly a novelty act, Tim actually possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of vintage American pop and vaudeville songs he was an avid collector of 78 rpm records and sheet music, and often scoured the New York Public Library's musical archives for material. During his proverbial 15 minutes of fame in the late '60s, Tiny Tim was one of the most bizarre spectacles on television: a heavy, six-foot-tall man with long, unkempt ringlets of hair, an enormous nose, and a garish plaid wardrobe warbling the old-time pop standard "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips" in a quavering, shockingly high falsetto while accompanying himself on the ukulele. ![]()
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